Biotech and analytical laboratories: PCR, Automata, sample management, quality analysis
Plant breeding has benefited from more and more efficient biotechnology laboratories.
As with other fields, the technologies and their prices have rapidly evolved in the past decades, enabling laboratories to expand the speed of plant research and development.
A typical biotechnology laboratory is responsible for the analysis or transformation of samples, the data or products that it generates are vital for the researchers.
These days the laboratories use many different types of automata. These machines have the advantage of being faster, more consistent and use smaller sample quantities compared to manual work. As a result, each sample generates an important amount of data.

Each automaton is usually connected to a computer; the data it generates takes the form of a computer file. How easy it is to read the file on another computer, varies greatly from one automaton to another.
One of the challenges the biotechnology laboratories face, which has nothing to do with their core business is: feeding sample lists to automata and generating result files linked to each sample in a standardized format.
When a biotechnology laboratory is part of the same group as the sample owners, it is easier to make software bridges to enable a better information flow. However, when that is not the case one or both actors must translate their file formats to common exchange standards.

Considering everything that is made possible thanks to better and better automata, it is important to make sure the generated data is accessible in the researcher’s work environment. That is why it is crucial to build the bridges when possible and to translate to standard formats when not.
RnDExp is built around key concepts, at its foundation: standardization and evolutivity, ensuring consistency of processes and adaptiveness to new technologies. These traits are both useful for biotechnology laboratories independent or not, as they need to be very thorough and reactive to evolutions in biotechnology.
Furthermore, RnDExp is a centralized system that manages lists of elements, being samples, tests or results and offers many customizable outputs: printout reports, spreadsheets, labels. Therefore, RnDExp helps biotechnology laboratories better communicate with their researcher clients.