The latest LIMS software for life sciences in 2024

Quality Assurance/Quality Control Laboratory Information Management System (QA/QC LIMS) software is a vital tool in industries where the quality and integrity of products are paramount, such as pharmaceuticals, food and beverages, environmental monitoring, and manufacturing. LIMS software streamlines and automates processes related to sample management, testing, data analysis, and reporting, ensuring compliance with regulatory standards and maintaining the highest levels of quality.

Laboratory informatics tools have continued to converge around requirements for data management and movement within an organisation. There are still considerable differences between an ELN and a LIMS system, such as the focus on more regulated data management or features that lend themselves to scientific discovery. 

However, the need to collaborate and securely manage data, provide permissions and facilitate integration with software components and physical scientific instruments as applicable across the spectrum of laboratory informatics software. 

For most labs, being fully ‘electronic’ corresponds to an application-centric portfolio of ‘systems’ that were not necessarily designed to work together and for which interoperability is hampered by the lack of standards and so has to be customised. A smart laboratory is an ‘integrated’ laboratory that is modular, based on standards and designed to facilitate connectivity, data sharing and collaboration.

These requirements led to the development of scientific data management systems (SDMS) and electronic laboratory notebooks (ELNs). LIMS products have become increasingly sophisticated, so the dividing line between LIMS and other informatics products is less clear.

This tech focus aims to showcase laboratory software tools that support these themes, with features that support collaboration, data management and integration of tools and instruments.

Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC) software in the laboratory serves as a comprehensive system to ensure the accuracy, reliability, and compliance of laboratory processes and test results. It facilitates various functions crucial for maintaining high standards in laboratory operations.

One primary function of QA/QC software is sample management. It helps in efficiently tracking the lifecycle of samples, from their receipt to disposal. This includes recording sample details, assigning unique identifiers, and managing storage locations to ensure traceability and prevent errors during handling and analysis.

Another important function is workflow management. QA/QC software streamlines laboratory workflows by automating tasks such as sample preparation, testing, and result recording. This optimisation of processes enhances efficiency, reduces turnaround times, and ensures consistent performance across different tasks.

The software also integrates with laboratory instruments and equipment to automate data capture and analysis. This integration eliminates manual data entry errors and ensures that instrument-generated data is directly associated with the corresponding sample and test, enhancing data integrity and reliability.

Quality control is another key function facilitated by QA/QC software. It monitors and manages quality control processes to ensure that test results meet predefined quality standards. This includes tracking quality control samples, monitoring instrument performance, and detecting deviations from expected values, with real-time alerts to notify users of out-of-specification results.

Products available

Agilent’s SLIMS enables scientists to digitise lab operations so users can easily submit analytical requests. Lab managers can plan, track, and assign tasks to other operators. SLIMS guides users through workflows and procedural steps while ensuring that all your instruments and reagents operate correctly. SLIMS allows researchers to use a single system to monitor workflows combining the best of a laboratory information management system (LIMS) and an electronic laboratory notebook (ELN). 

SLIMS works in your environment or the cloud, enabling the system to be tailored to fit laboratory requirements.  SLIMS connects your instruments and software in a fully bidirectional way. The system makes the reviewing process easier, enabling you to generate customised reports to certify and deliver to customers. SLIMS is also an ideal complement to the Agilent OpenLab software suite.

Biovia Lab Management modules digitalise the processes related to the management of samples, laboratory tasks, studies and instrument metrology. These modules help integrate systems and instruments in the laboratory and automate the transfer of data across lab operations and beyond. This increases overall lab productivity, consistency and compliance.

Together with its Electronic Lab Notebooks and applications for Procedure Execution and Materials Management, the Laboratory Management modules complete Biovia’s Unified Lab offering. It provides a flexible, platform-based cloud solution that allows organisations to work in an agile cost-effective manner while digitalising and streamlining lab workflows for regulated and non-regulated spaces. The future-proof approach allows organisations to orchestrate and control lab operations, manage and track samples and to easily adapt to changing needs.

CDD Vault from Collaborative Drug Discovery is a complete informatics platform hosted through an intuitive interface. It helps project teams manage, analyse, and present data for biotech companies, CROs, academic labs, research hospitals, agrochemical and consumer goods companies.

Built for drug discovery teams, the modern web interface is intuitive for beginners and powerful for experienced users. It allows users to migrate data easily without requiring any IT expertise, access research data from any modern web browser, search for any experiment or explore results in SAR tables and plots. The user can filter, colour-code and highlight substructures to quickly screen for patterns.

CellPort Cell Culture Suite is a secure, compliant SaaS-based application suite that manages all lab workflows, activities, equipment, materials, personnel, data/calculations, locations, and projects for cell culturing and cell banking.

CellPort aims to bring predictability to the unpredictable world of laboratory process cell and gene therapy development and manufacturing by managing the major sources of variation in assay execution including human behaviour, changes in the supply chain, equipment calibration, staff knowledge and training, ambiguous assays, origin and lifetime of materials, including cells and cell-based calculations.

Egnyte’s Public Cloud Connector (PCC) makes it easy to connect the Egnyte environment to AWS and Azure, without having to write a single line of code. PCC syncs specific information from the Egnyte cloud into a preferred public cloud environment. It does so by automating the deployment of Egnyte’s hybrid device into a public cloud environment, which provides near real-time sync of files to and from Egnyte and the public cloud.

To take full advantage of the power of public clouds like AWS and Microsoft Azure, life sciences companies must find solutions that allow a simple, secure, and efficient way to move data to and from the public cloud. They also need sufficient visibility and control over the data while maintaining the proper permission rights. 

The Labguru Electronic Lab Notebook was created by scientists for scientists, with an intuitive and user-friendly interface facilitating onboarding and simplifying every aspect of research. Flexible, configurable, cloud-based and feature-rich, LabLynx’s ELab LIMS moulds around your lab’s specific requirements to provide a comprehensive, user-friendly sample management system.

ELab LIMS is industry agnostic and can be configured to your lab’s specific processes and nomenclature. It is also scalable and can grow with you as you expand. LabLynx’s laboratory experts and application engineers work with you to adjust the system into a solution that meets your needs. They designed their LIMS to be cloud-based and browser-agnostic. You can access it anywhere, anytime – on laptops and mobile devices.

The ELN software provides you with the structure necessary to organise your data and get the most out of your results, without compromising on flexibility and adaptability. Secure and centralise your information into one accessible and searchable database in the electronic laboratory notebook to support and accelerate R&D. 

LabVantage provides a LIMS platform, with embedded ELN, LES, and SDMS, which helps labs run more efficiently – automating tasks, eliminating paper, and integrating with instruments and systems. This helps to minimise the risk of project delays or failures. The system easily adapts to your organisation’s evolving business requirements and cybersecurity protection needs.

The latest version of LabVantage LIMS includes a redesigned web portal that lets LabVantage customers extend appropriate access rights to their clients outside the laboratory. This new Portal protects customers’ valuable and sensitive data, while eliminating the need for manual requests for tests and other services.

LabWare’s Enterprise Laboratory Platform (ELP) combines the LabWare LIMS solution with LabWare ELN, a comprehensive and fully integrated Electronic Laboratory Notebook application. With LabWare 8 as its foundation, this platform enables companies to optimise compliance, improve quality, increase productivity and reduce costs. LabWare’s ELP brings together a range of capabilities to optimise laboratory workflows while at the same time helping to rationalise an organisation’s IT portfolio. 

Starlims is a comprehensive solution that improves quality and safety throughout the entire product lifecycle. From R&D to clinical trials to manufacturing and compliance, STARLIMS helps drive innovation throughout the entire product lifecycle. Configure workflows for a wide range of research projects and laboratory processes. Interface with automated sample handling systems, analytical instruments, and system-to-system communications via web services, file transfer (text, CSV, HL7, ASCII, etc.) and direct database communications.

Starlims helps users oversee the workflows of your lab with intuitive dashboards. Search across multiple data sets quickly to understand and react to emerging trends or find ways to improve product quality, workflows and planning of resources.

Thermo Scientific SampleManager LIMS, SDMS and LES software is a comprehensive solution for lab, data and process management. Users can quickly build workflows that map to actual laboratory processes, automate decisions and actions, and reduce the need for user intervention. 

The software facilitates compliance with standards such as 21 CFR Part 11, GMP and ISO 17025. Labs adhering to ALCOA+ guidelines can rely on the LIMS security, electronic signature, and complete audit trail to enable compliance. SampleManager LIMS software works hand-in-hand with enterprise systems including ERP, MES and other software connecting your laboratory to your business.

Thermo Scientific Watson LIMS software is designed specifically to manage bioanalytical studies, from initiation through study close out, and was designed with a deep understanding of the bioanalytical workflow and regulations. Study coordinators, scientists and technicians can move logically through each step in the workflow, simplifying bioanalytical support for nonclinical and clinical studies.