Software landscape
Efficient lab workflows
Multi-attribute monitoring methods (MAM) are a fitting illustration of streamlined productivity; a simple workflow on the surface that economizes work time while still containing a plethora of information underneath for the “just in case” scenario of needing it later.
As scientists, we pay attention to the tools that enable multitasking and simplify our complexity, but we have traditionally struggled since the options are either complex but numerous, or simplistic but functionally incomplete.
Software conundrum
To simplify the management of “too many things,” we sometimes default to generic tools that can be configured for specialized tasks. Programs like JMP or Excel are examples of generic applications typically employed for data summarization and reporting. However, they must be specialized to handle workflows through generation of specialty calculations or macros.
On the other hand, specialty applications can offer an abundance of work-specific workflows that generate great results, but too many of them leads to a “drawer full of gadgets” built for one specific method — and we still struggle to combine results from them later.
Connecting people, instruments and data
Centralized data
To challenge the idea that data must live apart at all, we see a structural change where the data is first agnostically centralized — regardless of the source — and then able to be utilized by specialty applications that can save results back into the central pool. This is where the “data lake” ideology really gets started.
Microservices-style software
To take advantage of a setup like this, laboratory software is shifting to connect specialized applications through a central platform built around non-specific data of all types. This shift includes the foresight for the platform to have agnostic ability to control data generation (instruments) as a separate application, be able to utilize workflow-specific processing applications for calculations, and be able to host non-specific report writing applications or even trend larger sets of data across time periods.
This shift is sometimes described as a microservices-style software. Each part is separate and represents a smaller subset of functionality to the overall process of collecting, employing, and summarizing data but they coalesce into a platform.
Thermo Scientific Ardia Platform
This platform approach is at the forefront of our minds at Thermo Fisher Scientific. We introduced our Thermo Scientific Ardia Platform to house a universe of data and have started the journey of connecting our current applications.
Our first fit-for-purpose offering connects Thermo Scientific Biopharma Finder, Thermo Scientific Xcalibur, and Thermo Scientific Chromeleon Chromatography Data System (CDS) to the central Ardia Platform.
- This streamlines the development of MAM methods by allowing data, libraries, reference spectra and more to transfer between the software through the central connection.
- It provides a central data lake for Xcalibur driven instruments and a central organization for Biopharma Finder results to strengthen the collaboration within labs and across labs within companies.
- It allows users to regulate consistent testing with the regulatory tools in Chromeleon CDS and share files back to investigate unexpected results with the power of Biopharma Finder.
Thermo Fisher wants to make sharing, collaborating, and transferring complex mass spectrometry work as easy and fast as accessing a website.
Learn how our built-for-purpose MAM solution makes it possible to transition data, methods and knowledge through a connected platform.