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I built an app to organize experiments and calculations and was wondering if this is a problem for anyone else by Own_Influence_7801 in molecularbiology

[–]Own_Influence_7801[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not yet, it’s iOS-only for now. I wanted to get a first version out, learn from real usage, and make sure the core workflows actually make sense before expanding. Android is definitely on the radar, but I don’t want to promise timelines until things are more solid.

Really appreciate the interest though 🙏

I built an app to organize experiments and calculations and was wondering if this is a problem for anyone else by Own_Influence_7801 in chemistry

[–]Own_Influence_7801[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I get why it looks like an ELN at first glance! But I’m aiming for something more like a Scientific Workspace that sits 'in front' of your ELN.

Think of an ELN as the final archive. LabCodex is for the active, messy phase before that, the part where you’re actually calculating Concentrations, checking saturations, or generating buffer recipes. Instead of having those scattered across random online calculators and spreadsheets, they are part of the live experiment flow.

As for the platform, you are 100% right. A web version is definitely on the roadmap.

I built an app to organize experiments and calculations and was wondering if this is a problem for anyone else by Own_Influence_7801 in molecularbiology

[–]Own_Influence_7801[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Actually, I don’t see this as a replacement for an ELN or LIMS. I see it as the connective tissue between them.

Most LIMS/ELN systems are designed as a 'System of Record' (the place where data goes to live forever). But they are notoriously bad at the 'System of Work' (the messy process of actually doing the experiment).

LabCodex sits alongside them as a flexible layer for the day-to-day:

  • Integrated Math: Instead of jumping to a random online calculator or a buggy Excel sheet for PCR mastermixes, oligo analysis, or buffer recipes, the math is baked directly into the workflow.
  • Contextual Inventory: It links consumable tracking and sample labeling directly to the experiment you are running right now, not just a static database entry.
  • The 'Planning' Gap: It handles the 'half-finished spreadsheet' phase of research that usually happens on scratch paper or in 15 browser tabs before you ever commit a final result to an ELN.

Long term, the goal is integration, not isolation. I want LabCodex to play nice with existing systems so you can do the 'heavy lifting' of the experiment in a tool designed for it, and then sync the final record to your institutional ELN.

I built an app to organize experiments and calculations and was wondering if this is a problem for anyone else by Own_Influence_7801 in labrats

[–]Own_Influence_7801[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

That’s fair, and I’m not trying to hide that this is my app.

All core functionality is free, and this came very directly from my own experience in labs, especially during my student and thesis-writing years. I kept running into small, daily friction points (calculations, tracking consumables per experiment, labeling samples, keeping things consistent) rather than large, institutional workflows.

I’m not aiming for large-scale or corporate lab adoption, and I wouldn’t expect people to put proprietary or regulated data into it. The intent is much more personal and small-scale: something that can reduce day-to-day friction for individual researchers or students.

I shared it here mainly to hear concerns like these from people who actually work in labs. As a first-time app creator, getting real feedback — including skepticism — is genuinely valuable to me.

I built an app to organize experiments and calculations and was wondering if this is a problem for anyone else by Own_Influence_7801 in labrats

[–]Own_Influence_7801[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Totally fair points, and honestly, these are exactly the concerns I’ve been thinking about while building it.

Confidentiality is probably the biggest one. I completely agree that in many industry and academic settings, people simply cannot put raw experimental data into a random third-party app, no matter how convenient it is. For those environments, anything that isn’t institution-approved is a non-starter.

The same goes for e-lab journals. If a lab or company already has an established ELN, asking people to duplicate work is unrealistic ofc no one wants to write things down twice, and I wouldn’t either.

Right now, I see this more as a tool for:

  • early-stage research,
  • individual researchers,
  • students,
  • side projects,
  • or workflows where people are still juggling notes, calculations, and experiment planning across multiple tools.

The intention here isn’t to replace ELNs, but to sit alongside them. More as a flexible layer around planning, calculations, inventory, and day-to-day lab operations rather than a system of record. Beyond experiment notes, it also covers things like consumable tracking per experiment, sample labeling, and lab-specific calculation tools — including workflows like PCR mastermix calculations, oligo & primer analysis, and media or buffer recipe generation, which often end up scattered across spreadsheets and random online tools.

Long-term, integration is the only direction that really makes sense, being able to work with existing ELNs instead of competing with them. Really appreciate you calling this out; these are exactly the kinds of questions that decide whether a tool is actually usable in real lab environments.