LII:The Application of Informatics to Scientific Work: Laboratory Informatics for Newbies

Title: The Application of Informatics to Scientific Work: Laboratory Informatics for Newbies

Author for citation: Joe Liscouski, with editorial modifications by Shawn Douglas

License for content: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International

Publication date: April 2021

Introduction

The purpose of this piece is to introduce people who are not intimately familiar with laboratory work to the basics of laboratory operations and the role that informatics can play in assisting scientists, engineers, and technicians in their efforts. The concepts are important because they provide a functional foundation for understanding lab work and how that work is done in the early part of the twenty-first century (things will change, just wait for it).

Who is this intended for?

This material is intended for anyone who is interested in seeing how modern informatics tools can help those doing scientific work. It will provide an orientation to scientific and laboratory work, as well as the systems that have been developed to make that work more productive. It’s for people coming out of school who have carried out lab experiments but not corporate research projects, for those who need to understand how testing labs work, and for IT professionals who may be faced with supporting computing systems in lab environments. It’s also for those who may be tasked with managing projects to choose, install, and make informatics tools useful.

Figure 1 shows the elements we’ll be discussing in this piece. The treatment of the technical material will be on the lighter side, leaving in-depth subject matter to other works. Instrument data systems will be covered lightly, as any serious discussion becomes lengthy and discipline-specific very quickly; additionally, that material has been covered in other works.

Figure 1. Elements we’ll be covering

Types of scientific and laboratory work

Science is about seeking truthful answers to questions. Sometimes those questions are open-ended without any idea where they will lead you in answering them (e.g. “Why does water ice float?”). Others are very specific, concerning material composition or properties (e.g., “How much lead is in this drinking water?”, “How much does a butterfly weigh?”). Still others may take some effort before you determine the best approach to working on them. The approach someone uses to address these questions depends on the nature of the question; some are destined for research, while others are addressed using specific test methods.

There are two types of research: basic and applied. Both can include field work, observations, experiments, models (mathematical, computer, and simulation), etc. Applied research is also done in testing or service laboratories, as with, for example, the development of new methods of analysis.

Basic and applied research

Basic research is open-ended, as you are looking into something without any idea of where the work will lead. It is often funded by grants through universities or government institutions; continued support depends on the perceived value of the research. Projects can range in size from the work of a single individual to a small team to large-scale groups studying astronomy, high-energy physics, engineering, the life sciences, or a number of fields.

Applied research, on the other hand, is directed toward a goal. That goal could be a cure for a disease, the development of a COVID-19 vaccine, or work towards artificial intelligence (AI). As with basic research, the work may begin with a single individual or a small team until some early goals have been reached, and then the project scales up. The effort may be broken down into a set of more narrowly focused efforts, whose results will be combined as the development proceeds. Since applied research is goal-directed, funding will depend upon who benefits from those goals being met. Projects of national interest, including security, may be wholly or partially funded by the government. Projects with a commercial interest tend to be funded by corporate interests, including individual companies in their own laboratories or through contract research organizations with expertise useful to the program. Where there is interest from a number of corporate and/or government groups, consortiums may form to distribute the cost and share in the results.

Both basic and applied research can be found in government institutions (including military groups, research and development agencies like the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency [DARPA], and task-specific institutions such as the National Institutes of Health [NIH]), public and private non-profit groups, corporations, consortia, and contract research organizations.

The research process

The research process begins with a question. Any question will do, including “why is the sky blue?” We’ll bypass Greek mythology 1 by asking more questions and planning how to proceed to answer them. For example, “Is the sky always blue?”, “When is/isn’t it?”, and “What other colors can it be?” Once the process begins, it can include a number of steps, the choice and direction depending upon the nature of the research and the mindset of the researcher:

• Observations: This includes basic note-taking with support material (text, photos, drawings, charts, and scanned material). Research (e.g., as with basic astronomy, field biology) can be as simple as looking something up on Google or as complex as understanding how a virus works. Research is about asking questions and looking for answers, which often leads to more questions. It’s a little like my granddaughter who always asks “why?” no matter how well I answer the previous question (or at least how well I think I did).
• Enhanced observations: This includes interacting with items under observation, as well as non-directed interactions, preliminary data gathering, and behavioral analysis.
• Experiments and information gathering: This includes organized experiments that are planned, directed, and purpose-driven, as well as data and information gathering.
• Team building: This includes the creation of teams or networks of people working on the same or similar projects.
• Analytics and reporting: This includes data and information analysis, data modeling (e.g., mathematical, computer algorithm, and simulation), information synthesis, and knowledge creation.
• Technology acquisition: This includes gaining access to public, commercial, remote, and other types of databases to assist the research.

Pinning down a “typical” approach to research isn’t possible because the routes people follow are as individual as the researchers and their area of work are. However, this is generally not the case with testing labs.

About the author

Initially educated as a chemist, author Joe Liscouski (joe dot liscouski at gmail dot com) is an experienced laboratory automation/computing professional with over forty years of experience in the field, including the design and development of automation systems (both custom and commercial systems), LIMS, robotics and data interchange standards. He also consults on the use of computing in laboratory work. He has held symposia on validation and presented technical material and short courses on laboratory automation and computing in the U.S., Europe, and Japan. He has worked/consulted in pharmaceutical, biotech, polymer, medical, and government laboratories. His current work centers on working with companies to establish planning programs for lab systems, developing effective support groups, and helping people with the application of automation and information technologies in research and quality control environments.