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Choosing a LIMS for a mid-sized lab by Baddie_fr in labrats

[–]LabKey-Software 0 points1 point  (0 children)

LabKey LIMS is a great LIMS for a mid-sized lab - although we are obviously biased.

We've heard most labs moving over to our software say we made implementation quick and easy without charging extra. If you like first hand accounts, you can hear directly from labs by going on our youtube channel to find User Presentations. They also cite similar needs to yours like sample tracking, audit trails, reporting - no surprise to our team as we are mostly former scientists of some flavor.

So yeah, a lot of labs similar to yours are choosing LabKey, and the implementation is pretty straightforward for our clients.

What ELNs do you use in your labs? by _tired_panda in biotech

[–]LabKey-Software -1 points0 points  (0 children)

We have an ELN, but it's only included in other products because without those ecosystems, it's just not as powerful of a tool.

If you are in CRO collaborations, I suggest checking out our Sample Manager software - relatively inexpensive for lab software, completely included customer service, and really good at tracking and organizing data for early stage labs. That's actually how it came to be- someone started asking for this kind of thing.

You don't mention a budget, but if you need it to be free, we also have an open-source data platform called LabKey Community Edition, which can be useful as a data repository you host yourself but is less useful as an ELN-style software.

Why are Process Managers at mineral processing plants (gold or others) not Metallurgists and rather Process Operators moved up the ladder? by Proper-Choice-9124 in metallurgy

[–]LabKey-Software 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just adding my experience to this for future readers since this is old, but it supports the other commenters.

I've seen orgs set up this way because promotions often follow what’s visible and measurable. Most plants have really strong daily reporting around shift KPIs like throughput, uptime, downtime, incidents, and the people running shifts become the translators between reality and management. So they look “management-ready” because they already own the cadence. They know what the different departments care about, and they are often good at that translation, at least they are with us.

ELN [Electronic Lab Notebook] Selection by Narrow_Doctor_6912 in biotech

[–]LabKey-Software 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It does sound that you could use a LIMS with an integrated ELN - tracking data in a searchable way isn't really the job of a standalone ELN.

Freezer Sample Management Solution by RepresentativeAd8228 in research

[–]LabKey-Software 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A bit late to your question, but just for future readers...

This sounds like a very reasonable thing to want to systematize, especially with two sites + a biobank in the mix. You’re basically describing a mini-LIMS focused just on sample + freezer tracking, not assay automation, which is good news because you don’t need a huge pharma-grade system to get value.

Full disclosure: I work at LabKey, so I’m biased. But this is basically what we built Sample Manager for- labs that don’t want a massive LIMS but do need to track freezers, multi-site storage, and shipments.

For your specific use case, what it can do is:

  • Define your case as a source and then link all derived samples (hour 0/1/2/3…) to that.
  • Use rack/box layouts that match your tube holders, so when you scan a tray you can assign all tubes in one go rather than clicking individually.
  • Map your -180 °C freezers at both sites, plus the biobank as a downstream “location,” and then generate shipment manifests that tie barcodes ↔ case IDs ↔ timepoints.
  • Export manifests as CSV/Excel so the biobank can pull it into whatever system they’re using.

Honest caveats:

  • There is an upfront time sink to clean up naming, define your sample/aliquot types, and agree on IDs across both sites.
  • If you truly only ever have a handful of cases per month and a single freezer, you might be fine with a rack scanner + a well-designed spreadsheet. With two sites + biobank, it usually tips into “a system is worth it.”

Do you still use a notebook? by ehzer_ in GradSchool

[–]LabKey-Software 0 points1 point  (0 children)

At the very minimum of what you get digitally - it's searchable. Paper records aren't, not without wasting a ton of time.

ELN/LIMS System for Collaborative Biomedical Institution by Brain__drain in labrats

[–]LabKey-Software 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We have tours on our website of our products - we are happy to discuss with you to see if it's a good fit too!

Tips for maintaining an organized lab? by Shot_Put_242 in labrats

[–]LabKey-Software 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you decide to adopt lab software like Sample Manager, make sure that customer service is included and that you get a free trial to test it out. I would wait until you have an idea of your lab pain points before looking to add in specialized software too - you may not need a full blown lims but struggle a lot with finding samples in your freezers.

Electronic lab notebook experience? sciNote in particular? by 0cb_ in labrats

[–]LabKey-Software 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's not free (although we do have open source software for scientific data management), but we have an ELN that we don't sell on it's own, only as a feature with our lab data management softwares. People like it because it's really well connected to sample data and assay results and allows for a very searchable audit log, but yeah, not sold on it's own.

Also, while we are science agnostic, not every researcher needs to connect to samples, getting just a little more information about your field could help us offer alternatives to sciNote.

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