Journal:Laboratory information management system for the biosafety laboratory: Safety and efficiency
| Full article title | Laboratory information management system for the biosafety laboratory: Safety and efficiency |
|---|---|
| Journal | Journal of Biosafety and Biosecurity |
| Author(s) | Sun, Dingzhong; Wu, Linhuan; Fan, Guomei |
| Author affiliation(s) | Institute of Microbiology Chinese Academy of Sciences |
| Primary contact | Email: wulh at im dot ac dot cn |
| Year published | 2021 |
| Volume and issue | 3(1) |
| Page(s) | 28–34 |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.jobb.2021.03.001 |
| ISSN | 2588-9338 |
| Distribution license | Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International |
| Website | https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2588933821000042 |
| Download | https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2588933821000042/pdfft (PDF) |
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Abstract
The laboratory information management system (LIMS) has been widely used to facilitate laboratory activities. However, the current LIMS does not contain functions to improve the safety of laboratory work, which is a major concern of biosafety laboratories (BSLs). With significant biosafety information needing to be managed and an increasing number of biosafety-related research projects underway, it is worthy of expanding the current framework of LIMS and building a system that is more suitable for BSL usage. Such a system should carefully trade off between the safety and efficiency of regular lab activities, allowing laboratory staff to conduct their research as freely as possible while also ensuring their and the environment’s safety. In order to achieve this goal, relevant information on the type of research, laboratory personnel, experimental materials, and experimental equipment must be collected and fully utilized by a centralized system and its databases.
Keywords: laboratory information management system, biosafety, biological research laboratory, laboratory safety, workflow management
Introduction
A laboratory information management system (LIMS) is a computerized system that collects, processes, and stores laboratory-generated data and information. Though the LIMS was initially developed to automate the management of experimental data, it now has the potential to develop into the digital hub of many laboratory activities.[1, 2, 3, 4] Inside the lab, by deeply entwining the LIMS and highly-automated laboratory equipment, researchers are even able to program robots (for example, the Biomek series from Beckman Coulter) to execute iterative experiments without any human operation.[5] Outside the lab, many current LIMS in clinical and analytical labs have greatly accelerated the process of releasing test results to the customer because of their network-based reporting system.4 Regardless of the specific functions a LIMS possesses, the ultimate purpose of the LIMS is to save human labor and improve data quality (i.e., accuracy, reliability, and timeliness).[6]
Although the importance of a LIMS in a lab was quite low initially, with the rapid development of computer and network technologies, the LIMS had gradually evolved to play more diverse roles and become an irreplaceable part in many labs. The range of LIMS users has expanded as well, from mostly analytical labs to diagnostic biosafety laboratories (BSLs) of specific function, as well as more general research labs.2, 3, 7, 8
Nevertheless, the functions of all current LIMS, to our knowledge, do not address the major concern of biological safety and security in biosafety labs. This is even true for those LIMS currently used in BSLs. Although the modern LIMS has reduced a number of human factors from certain experimental activities, few if any have actually increased the general safety of the BSL as these systems do not contain any safety- and security-control mechanisms. The focus of a traditional LIMS, whether it is used in a BSL or not, is still to better facilitate lab staff performing experiments. Even the electronic laboratory notebook (ELN), a tool widely appreciated by BSL staff, was not designed for but merely happened to suit the working environment of BSLs. As such, we do not currently have any digital systems that can help a BSL manage its biosafety information. At the same time, biosafety-related information has been collected, stored, and transmitted in digital form in BSLs since at least 2000, and the amount of digital biosafety information is growing, when compared to paper-based information.[9] This has resulted in a strange situation, onw where biosafety information itself is highly digitalized, yet there is no centralized system designed to better organize that electronic information and enable laboratorians to use it appropriately. Most information typically stays in the form of isolated electronic documents on either a local computer or hosted on a local network, and the search and retrieval of the information is usually complicated. For example, when a safety document is requested by a user, the search, deployment, use, and dissemination of the document is largely done on an individual basis, via a not-well-indexed information system and an unrelated transmission system like email or even paper-based messaging. Hence, the information management system of biosafety labs—if the system even exists—is ineffective, inefficient, and cannot satisfy the needs of the modern biosafety lab. We therefore believe that a specific information management system for biosafety laboratories that is able to improve the safety and efficiency of these laboratories is a necessity.
References
Notes
This presentation is faithful to the original, with only a few minor changes to presentation. Some grammar and punctuation was cleaned up to improve readability. In some cases important information was missing from the references, and that information was added. Nothing else was changed in accordance with the NoDerivatives portion of the license.
