ABSTRACT
The Biotrust resource provides a web-accessible method to coordinate discovery and request of annotated biospecimens for research. The system is built on an open-source web-application framework, and has a modular approach to defining education on process, study registration and feasibility review, patient identification and cohort forwarding, consent tracking, and biospecimen processing/distribution. The architecture has been designed as a "pass through" system that provides annotated deidentified biospecimens for investigator use in a restricted time window of 4-7 days, and does not maintain biobanking facilities. As a core institutional resource, the system integrates seven vertical service arms, each of which can be accessed independently to support flexible and independent use in translational research. The system will be described in terms of requirements for use, metrics of evaluation, and lessons learned in integrating this into clinical and operational environments.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Laboratories that produce protein reagents for research and development face the challenge of deciding whether to track batch-related data using simple file based storage mechanisms (e.g. spreadsheets and notebooks), or commit the time and effort to install, configure and maintain a more complex laboratory information management system (LIMS). Managing reagent data stored in files is challenging because files are often copied, moved, and reformatted. Furthermore, there is no simple way to query the data if/when questions arise. Commercial LIMS often include additional modules that may be paid for but not actually used, and often require software expertise to truly customize them for a given environment. FINDINGS: This web-application allows small to medium-sized protein production groups to track data related to plasmid DNA, conditioned media samples (supes), cell lines used for expression, and purified protein information, including method of purification and quality control results. In addition, a request system was added that includes a means of prioritizing requests to help manage the high demand of protein production resources at most organizations. ProteinTracker makes extensive use of existing open-source libraries and is designed to track essential data related to the production and purification of proteins. CONCLUSIONS: ProteinTracker is an open-source web-based application that provides organizations with the ability to track key data involved in the production and purification of proteins and may be modified to meet the specific needs of an organization. The source code and database setup script can be downloaded from http://sourceforge.net/projects/proteintracker. This site also contains installation instructions and a user guide. A demonstration version of the application can be viewed at http://www.proteintracker.org.
