Windber Research Institute will utilise customised laboratory workflow system to manage the data generated in its clinical breast cancer project
Amersham Biosciences has signed an agreement with the Windber Research Institute, a state-of-the-art biomedical research facility, to develop a customised Scierra Solutions laboratory workflow system to manage the data generated in its clinical breast cancer project.
Windber was already using Scierra LWS solutions for gene expression, sequencing, genotyping and proteomics, but needed to expand the system with the development of a custom clinical laboratory workflow system (C-LWS) that was able to collect information on patient histories, samples, and pathologies.
In addition, there was a requirement for that information to be integrated with its genomics and proteomics data in a single database.
The flexibility of the Scierra LWS platform meant that the new workflow could be easily integrated into Windber's current systems.
Windber is conducting high throughput research and developing better ways to detect, treat and manage breast and other cancers.
According to Nicholas Jacobs, president and CEO of Windber Research Institute, the extensive use of bioinformatics tools and integration of data from multiple sources will be the key to accelerating discovery of novel biomarkers and finding cures.
"The new HIPAA-compliant customised data management system will seamlessly interface with the four Scierra laboratory workflow systems we are currently using to track, store and analyze data," says Richard Somiari, chief operating/scientific officer at the Windber Research Institute.
"This first of a kind advanced workflow system links clinical data and pathology information collected on patient samples with data from our research laboratories resulting in a comprehensive data warehouse that is unrivalled in breast cancer research".
"Windber has developed a world-class informatics system for compiling and analysing laboratory and clinical data based on four Amersham Biosciences Scierra laboratory workflow systems," comments Jerry Walker, vice president of informatics at Amersham Biosciences.
"The customised clinical LWS provides the critical software link between patient sample information, clinical data, and the results of advanced research studies and analytical analysis.
"Clinical and laboratory data will now be combined into a single, easily accessible database". Amersham Biosciences, in collaboration with scientists at Windber designed the customised clinical LWS to collect, annotate, track, and provide ready access to information collected by doctors, nurses, and pathologists on patient samples that will be sent to the research laboratory for further study.
This data can then be viewed and analysed in conjunction with the results of genotype, gene expression, proteomic, and DNA sequencing data compiled by the Scierra systems currently in use at the Windber Research Institute.
Scierra LWS is a unified platform to support and manage data across multiple instruments, users, and applications. It is a family of flexible and efficient workflow-based software products and services for managing DNA and protein information gathered from discovery processes.
The Scierra LWS can comprehensively track and manage samples from the point of sample acquisition through data analysis, and can be customised to meet the specific needs of each client's laboratory data collection and analysis environment.
