Product category:
Laboratory information management system (LIMS)
News Release from: Applied Biosystems | Subject: Life Science Lims
Edited by the Laboratorytalk Editorial
Team on 19 May 2003
Talking bytes and nucleotides
Medical genetics department in Nijmegen chooses informatics solution to help control and organise the large amounts of sequencing data it was producing
The Department of Human Genetics at the University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, Netherlands, turned to Applied Biosystems when the central sequencing facility needed to implement a software solution to help control and organise the large amounts of sequencing data it was producing Erik Sistermans, who runs the facility, explained: "When the facility was first set up, a simple homemade Microsoft Access database was created to input sample information, but the laboratory's sequencing workload expanded enormously and it became apparent that a more professional system would be required to cope
This article was originally published on Laboratorytalk on 2 Oct 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
Related stories
High throughput nucleic acid purification
Applied Biosystems has released the ABI Prism 6100 nucleic acid PrepStation for high throughput purification of RNA and DNA, taking only 30 minutes to isolate total RNA from cells
Cattle DNA typing kit
Applied BioSystems says that complete traceability from farm to supermarket is now a reality, providing a new tool to establish the safety of food products
It made sense to us to turn to Applied Biosystems because of its experience and understanding of the world of genomics.
Often there is a technical language barrier between computer scientists and biomedical scientists - they are talking bytes and we are talking nucleotides - but this has never been a real issue with the Applied Biosystems team." Applied Biosystems' Rapid Integration Solution (RIS) team visited the facility and recommended an informatics solution with an open architecture that could manage all of the laboratory data and would allow the patient database and other databases from other central facilities to be fully integrated.
The Life Science Lims application was chosen because it is designed to specifically support the requirements of genomics laboratories, and includes important features such as plate handling and tracking and of course the integration of the Applied Biosystems sequencers.
The RIS team then was able to customise this and additional software modules to take into account issues such as security.
The system is now up and running in Nijmegen and is proving popular with the facility's researchers.
Dr Sistermans concluded: "I am very pleased that, although the system itself is rather complicated, it is very easy for our researchers to use.".
• Applied Biosystems: contact details and other news
• Email this article to a colleague
• Register for the free Laboratorytalk email newsletter
• Laboratorytalk Home Page
Search the Pro-Talk network of sites
