Laboratory Automation

Laboratories activities are a keystone of modern plant breeding programs. It brings breeders and testers fast information for their decision making.

Biotechnologies and analytical testing generate big amounts of data in various files formats and from different type of living materials. One of the challenges researchers are facing is to feed sample lists and generate result files in a standardized format. Another challenge is to improve the communication and the workflow between laboratory technicians and breeders, to share efficiently data and link phenotypic and genetic information.

That’s why this is crucial to build IT bridges between laboratory department and breeding department, through laboratory automation in a collaborative system that centralizes and standardizes all the data exchanges.

Let’s see 3 examples of processes where exchanges of information can be enhanced by laboratory automation:

Sample management with laboratory automation tools

Sample Collection

Breeders and laboratories are interacting every single day, constantly exchanging samples and data. IT tools within the plant breeding software automatically generate an identifier for each material and generate labels, facilitating information exchanges between the laboratory and the breeder who use the same material. Such codification ensures the traceability of every material.

Sample Management

The laboratory automation process of the plant breeding software allows to manage user’s profiles and their access rights, enabling notably blind analysis: Technicians will not get the access to the origins of samples and so they will make objective analysis and avoid to generate biased results.

Bar Code Sample

Bar-codes also facilitate the identification system and accelerates samples inventory for the shipment, for instance.

“IT tools within the plant breeding software automatically generate an identifier for each material and generate labels, facilitating information exchanges between the laboratory and the breeder”

Data workflow optimized by laboratory automation

Workflow

Process identification in the plant breeding software saves time and avoids wrong manipulations. For instance, new workers in the laboratory can just follow the steps which are already registered on the laboratory automation software.

Input

To optimize the data workflow, it is also important to automate data exchanges. It saves time, avoids Excel file transfer and thus reduces the risk of handling mistakes. For example, when the breeder fills a MM form in the plant breeding software, the lab results are directly entered in the database and reachable for the researcher to combine with other sources data (e.g. phenotyping, environment... ), without needing to export any data from a spreadsheet. An integrated and centralized IT system enables a high interoperability between the various data sources: Molecular, genetical, in vivo observations, environmental etc... 

Data Collection

Laboratory automation saves time on repetitive tasks, to capture and to store automatically data from a sequencer, from a LIMS and to get sample plates in the right order for analytical tests.

“With the plant breeding software, I am able to define and configure easily different protocols, and I can set functions in order to define unique experiments.” Zhang He, RnDExp™ Administrator at Da Bei Nong Biotech Center in Shenzhen, China.

Enhance analysis and communication automation in the laboratory

Communication Breeding

Store and manage voluminous data in a plant breeding software with suitable IT architecture and storing facilities are crucial to optimize performances. A prerequisite is to centralize all kinds of research activities into one system.

Report

For instance, if you centralize breeding activities, laboratory activities, product development you will allow researchers to combine information from every department and determine some correlations or links between these research data.

Software

Various reports such as Word, PDF or Excel reports enable to industrialize and standardize the communication of the results.

“Indeed, to centralize all data into one system helps to manage all data in real time, to compile them and get the better result and insure the collaboration between laboratories and breeders.”

Laboratory automation breeding software

Appropriate breeding software IT tools enable to manage samples, automate laboratory processes and centralize IT system to optimize collaboration among laboratories and breeders.

Doriane’s objective is to improve breeding programs and facilitate the exchange of data between laboratories and breeders: The plant scoring app RnDExp® Mobile enables fast and safe data collection of observations and measurements. The plant breeding software RnDExp® centralizes all the R&D department information and processes, thus avoids all type of mistakes during the transfer of information.

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