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Guest post by Dr. Lars Malmström, S3IT, Computational Biology, UZH

Scientific endeavors across multiple domains, including the life sciences, are changing as a result of the proliferation of digital devices and sensors that produce vast amounts of data. As a result, it is increasingly important to manage the scientific data actively and to document the process in which the data was acquired and analyzed. Open Science initiatives are further requiring scientists to make their data available to others after publication. These tasks can quickly become an unneeded drain of busy scientists’ time.

openBIS is a free and open-source data manager developed by the ETH Zurich and supports the full data life cycle from project inception, through data production and analysis, to making the data available to the public.

The openBIS electronic lab notebook, ELN, is a relatively recent addition, and it can replace paper-based lab notebooks. Through a web interface, the ELN is making it easier to capture the sample preparation process, keep track of reagents and protocols, and, importantly, explicitly link the protocols, reagents, and samples. Check out the openBIS ELN demo instance and tutorials for further information.

Further reading:

Bauch, A., Adamczyk, I., Buczek, P. et al. openBIS: a flexible framework for managing and analyzing complex data in biology research. BMC Bioinformatics12, 468 (2011)
Barillari C,, Ottoz D, Fuentes-Serna, J. et al. openBIS ELN-LIMS: an open-source database for academic laboratories. Bioinformatics, Volume 32, Issue 4, 15 February 2016, Pages 638–640