August 25, 2022
About LabKey
From their inception, biotech startups are faced with a myriad of challenges to overcome and critical choices to make. The complexities of running a focused and efficient R&D program are only compounded as the enterprise grows and making a misstep at any point can drive up costs and impact the chances of success.
One vital decision biotechs must make is what LIMS software to use, what bioinformatic features the company needs, and at what point in the growth of the biotech should the system be implemented. Many biotechnology startups will initially rely on antiquated, time-consuming and expensive manual processes to manage samples, data and workflows. This approach is expensive and highly prone to errors that can put the integrity of valuable data at risk. The sooner an organization can migrate towards using a biotech LIMS, the sooner they will be able to reap the benefits of a more efficient, organized and sustainable biotech R&D organization.
Below we outline a few critical signs that your biotech is ready to take the plunge and start using a LIMS for managing samples, data and workflows.
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The variety and complexity of your data is becoming unmanageable.
As your biotech grows, so will the volume and complexity of your data. Using disparate systems and methods to manage samples, data and workflows can easily lead to disjointed data lacking context or lineage. These challenges require centralization into a unified LIMS capable of supporting basic scientific needs and exploration of existing work to prevent duplication of effort and improve planning efficiency.
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You lack an easy way to manage routine workflows and data hand-offs while improving accountability efficiently.
From cell line development to formulation, biopharma R&D is a multidisciplinary and collaborative process that requires careful biologics workflow management and data hand-offs. It is critical to facilitate these interactions across teams since the accumulated work is then used to assess project progress and plan future R&D work. Having a purpose-built LIMS for biologics R&D helps facilitate these essential functions.
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You need a way to control staff and collaborators’ access to data (IP protection).
As your biotech grows and your R&D pipeline advances, your need to control and monitor access to data will only increase. As you work to organize your data in an internally consistent manner that aligns with the structure and function of your teams, having tools to guide and constrain users as they navigate your information infrastructure will help you stay organized. A typical biotech LIMS will provide ways to partition and organize your data including concepts of “projects” and “folders”.
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The quantity of samples and their derivatives is becoming difficult to track.
Sample management is a key consideration when building your pipeline since the number of samples and complexity of their relationships will only grow with time. Using spreadsheets can quickly become unwieldy and lack valuable functionality like the ability to track sample lineage and audit actions performed on each sample. Using a LIMS with a strong sample management core is essential to supporting a growing biotech.
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Your notebooking/experiment documentation is separate from your sample management and data capture.
Often, a biotech R&D organization will start using disparate software tools like ELNs or LIMS to handle various functions. Doing so can impact data integrity, lead to inefficient processes/workflows and possibly even to duplication of work. One such area is documenting experiments with an electronic lab notebook. Having an ELN that is integrated with your other tools and data can greatly improve the organization, visibility and integrity of your experiment data. An integrated ELN can also greatly improve the efficiency of biotech R&D and reduce software costs.
Biologics LIMS: LIMS software designed for growing biotechs.
Biologics LIMS has features to assist biotechs in nearly every stage of their R&D pipeline. To learn more, please explore the links below.
> Bioregistry
> Sample Management
> Electronic Lab Notebook