caELMIR an Electronic Laboratory Management Information and Retrieval system for pre-clinical experimental data
Jose Galvez MD; UCD Center for Comparative Medicine;
Content:
caELMIR was created to provide scientists with an electronic solution to their problems in storing, managing, and sharing experimental data. In 2005 the Mouse Models of Human Cancer Consortium (MMHCC) conducted a survey of its scientists to determine their capability for sharing experimental raw data. The survey centered on their staffs ability to electronically store, retrieve and share data. The survey results showed that most laboratories are not equipped to share basic experimental datasets. Most commonly they had neither plans or systems to centrally store and retrieve data. Audits also revealed no readily available tools for this task.
Technology:
To solve these problems the MMHCC sponsored a cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid (caBIG) project aimed at creating a web-based laboratory information management system (LIMS) specifically designed for pre-clinical trials. The requirements for a pre-clinical LIMS are to: 1. organize and manage experimental studies 2. manage experiments within a study 3. manage experimental animals enrolled in experiments 4. handle the multitude of data types recorded for given experiments.
Design:
caELMIR (caBIG, Electronic Laboratory Management Information Retrieval system) is designed to address these requirements. caELMIR is built with a hierarchical data model organizing data into studies and experiments. Experimental data is associated with experimental animals, which are organized into experiment groups. caELMIR can manage any number of experimental data types by allowing Principle Investigators to design and implement data-collection protocols consisting of multiple primary data types. Data collection protocols are associated with studies and experiments and used to collect experimental data. caELMIR allows scientists to share experimental data by exposing the data model to the caBIG grid. Datasets flagged for sharing and can will be available to any member of caBIG.
Results:
caELMIR allows scientists to easily store and manage all experimental data.
Conclusion:
The MMHCC identified a basic scientific need, the ability to electronically store and manage experiential data. caELMIR, fulfills this scientific need .and allows scientists to easily share scientific data with the caBIG community.
