GenoLogics Unveils Scalable, Adaptable LIMS Software for Next-Generation Genomics Labs

GenoLogics, a leading provider of laboratory information management system (LIMS) software for next-generation genomics labs, today announced a detailed product roadmap for its eponymous LIMS, designed to provide the scalability, adaptability and usability features necessary for mainstream adoption of the most advanced sequencing technologies while supporting existing genotyping platforms. By incorporating a set of comprehensive features over the next year in the GenoLogics LIMS, the company is building on its deep experience in genomics to meet the standardization, flexibility and user requirements of next-generation genomics labs.

Specifically, GenoLogics announced that the enhancement of its LIMS will offer the following new features:

•Pre-configured integrations and interfaces to major next-generation sequencing (NGS) instruments, with the immediate availability of the GenoLogics LIMS pre-configured for Illumina NGS systems. Additional pre-configured system offerings will be available in the second half of 2011.

•Immediate availability of GenoLogics Rapid Scripting™ Application Programming Interface (API), empowering scientific programmers and bioinformaticians to quickly and easily reconfigure or customize workflows as laboratory protocols change.

•Role-based user interfaces that address the specific needs of laboratory managers, laboratory technicians and external collaborators. The first role-based user interface, for lab technicians, will be available by the end of 2011.

“Today’s approach to data management fails to meet the needs of high-throughput, next-generation genomics labs and does not recognize that critical research is being performed on alternative platforms across and among organizations,” said GenoLogics CEO Michael Ball. “The rollout of these significant enhancements to the GenoLogics LIMS — the immediate release of our Illumina pre-configured system and new GenoLogics Rapid Scripting APIs, with role-based user interfaces later this year — provides the industry’s most advanced, comprehensive information management system for next-generation genomics labs.”

A full-featured LIMS manages laboratory data from sample submission to delivery of data for analysis. However, the unprecedented throughput, experimental complexity and changeability associated with NGS create unique challenges for a LIMS. The rapid timescales associated with sequencing require systems that can be configured quickly and easily to accommodate the specific instrumentation chosen by a lab. Scientific programmers and bioinformaticians must be able to easily adapt the system themselves to support changing technologies and protocols. In addition, NGS requires iterative, collaborative work that is performed by many different types of scientists.