Communication in the Lab

Good communication is essential in any job and science is no exception. Communication in the laboratory takes many forms. Lab members must all communicate with each other on a day to day basis to know what reagents need re-ordering and where things are stored. As I mentioned in a previous blog,  lab members often teach each other, and new lab members, new techniques and share information about new developments in the laboratory reagents available or new technology. They also share modifications to protocols they’ve tried. Lab members must also communicate with the lab head to report their progress and discuss concerns or ideas.

Lab managers

Both the head of the lab and the lab members will need to communicate regularly with the lab manager, if there is one, to ensure the

More than a thousand years after the era of Alhazen, the inventor of the scientific method, millions of scientists are seeking the truth and expanding human knowledge. With so many scientists performing research and motivated by the goal of publishing their discoveries, competition is fierce. To publish first, you require scientific insight, competency, efficiency, motivation, persistence and of course, a bit of luck. A good and sound laboratory management system can help researchers gain many of the above requirements and increase their chances to publish first. The following are what I believe to be convincing reasons to adopt a laboratory management system such as BioData’s web based laboratory management system.

Share Knowledge

A real life example of why it is important to share knowledge: I was trying to repeat an assay done in another lab but for some reason it didn’t work. This assay was performed by a collaboration of several labs and thus it was hard to get a hold of some of the students involved in the process. This made the process of troubleshooting longer and a relatively simple assay took more time (and frustration!) than it should have. There are also cases in which the student that originally performed this assay is out of the lab and the researcher decides to troubleshoot the assay rather than plow through the student’s mass of binders, notebooks and papers to find out why the assay doesn’t work. Talk about a waste of time!

So, sharing information in the lab (and with outside collaborators) is part of the scientific effort and without it, practicing science is like inventing the wheel every time a new student arrives to the lab or starts a new protocol. Today, most labs utilize the old and faithful lab notebook as their knowledge transfer platform, even though in many cases its one of the limiting steps in the knowledge transfer process! Here’s why:

• Researchers are sometimes too lazy to write down all the detailed procedures that have been employed.

• Many times researchers write their ideas, calculations, and data obtained on a piece of paper, which can be lost or thrown in the trash.

• Most researchers are not well educated on how to document scientific experimentation (background, materials & method, procedure, results and discussion) thus in many cases it is hard to decipher what was the reason or how the experiment was conducted.

• Let’s be honest – some of us have terrible hand writing and trying to decipher it can be a time consuming effort.

• The lack of a proper table of contents and indexing system in the lab notebook makes searching for a certain experiment a time consuming effort.

In the current era of fast paced, high tech, and increasing scientific data acquisition, lab notebooks seem out of place and not the best solution to current challenges.

How has BioData helped me improve my knowledge sharing?

• Predetermined experimentation fields. These fields make my life easy and force me to focus on what I am required to document when I am about to perform an experiment. It makes me think about why I am doing the experiment, what the procedure is, and the different controls needed.

• Real time messages. Now I can send messages and comments about a procedure a lab mate is about to perform. Also, if I see that one of my lab mates is about to run a western blot then I can ask to join in with a sample or two. This can save me a lot of time and it is a common pain that people in the lab run half empty gels when someone just needs to check one sample.

• All the data and images are in one place. Thus, it’s easy to search for it and it is already digitized, so less time is required when preparing the manuscript!

• Centralized protocol collection ensures that it’s easy to find the protocol you need, even if you are a new student. The availability of the protocols online and being easily readable makes the whole experimentation process much more fluid. In addition, lab members can update the protocol or just post comments if something didn’t work or needs improvement – this can be a real time saver!

  
  

What type of knowledge sharing functions would have improved the efficiency of your lab experimentation?

Chen Guttman is a Graduate Student at the Zarivach lab in Ben Gurion University. Chen blogs at benchwise and serves as BioData’s community liaison.

Monitoring mice immunization while away from the lab can be a difficult task. While there are a number of different strategies that can be used, there are two main factors to focus on. They are preparation and remote management. This is especially important if you plan on being away from the lab for an extended period of time, such as when you attend a conference or take a vacation.

Preparation

Before you leave, it is important to make sure that your staff is ready to complete all of the daily tasks that you are normally responsible for, along with their normal jobs. One thing to consider is whether or not you will need additional help while you are away. If an additional assistant or temporary helper is brought into the lab, then creating a simple map to help them locate the correct mice cages can make it a lot easier. Additionally, doing as many tasks ahead of time can help as well. When it comes to monitoring mice immunization while away from the lab, one of the most important things to do is prepare the correct dosage. It is also helpful to label each dosage so that anyone in the lab can take care of administering the drugs. When labeling the dosage, it should include the name of the drug, the cage it is associated with, and the amount.

Remote Management

Once you have done all of the necessary preparation, there is still a chance that something could go wrong. This makes the ability to remotely monitor and manage your lab a huge benefit. It is impossible to predict what could go wrong, so it is important that you still pay the lab a little attention while you are away. For example, when monitoring mice immunization while away from the lab it is helpful to designate someone to contact you once or twice a week to keep you updated. Not only will this give them a chance to clear up any issues that may arise, but it can also give you piece of mind. There is nothing worse than spending your vacation worrying about what is going on in the lab.

Make Monitoring Mice Immunization While Away From the Lab Easier

One way to make both the preparation process and remote management easier to leverage existing technologies. Using BioData’s online laboratory management technologies can save a lot of time and improve your labs overall efficiency. The biggest benefit that BioData’s tool provides is centralization. During the preparation phase, you can add all of the relevant information to a single database that every lab technician and assistant can access. This ensures that no paperwork gets lost between shifts. It also makes remote management easier because you can log into the databases wherever you are and whenever you want. Proper preparation and remote access to the lab are the two key elements of monitoring mice immunization while away from the lab.

Every lab has it’s own set of scientific protocols, standard techniques that it routinely uses and that new members of the lab need to learn. Some protocols are fairly routine and can be looked up in a practical manual and followed as they are but often a lot of time and effort goes into developing them. Various protocols might have been tried and combined to produce exactly the right protocol for the needs of that particular lab. Even with standard protocols that work well there is often a need to optimize the preparation of the specimens used, for example in molecular biology protocols the method of extraction for the DNA, RNA or protein will depend on the source.

In part 1 we began to discuss the importance of organization in a laboratory and provided some tips regarding large orders and consumables. Today we continue discussing how you can effectively manage a large laboratory.

The more difficult and time-consuming aspect of a manager’s job can be dealing with personnel, particularly in the area of conflict resolution.  This is where Griffith applies a universal mantra to being a good lab manager:  “Any person you deal with, internally or externally, can be the most important person to your lab’s function at any given time.  So you treat every single person with respect as opposed to a ‘I’m in charge, do what I say’ attitude.”  If the lab’s air supply is shut down, the HVAC tech is the most important person to the lab.  People respond well to acknowledgement of their concerns and advice even if you don’t think it’s important, and scientists are no different.  Taking the time to listen to lab members engenders trust and the feeling that you are on their side.  This is especially important advice when there are lab conflicts.  If a lab member comes to the manager with a concern, the manager should allow the individual to articulate their concerns, which usually highlights the roots of the real problem and also leads to a compromise solution.  Likewise, if there is a rule-breaker in the lab, especially if the violation has to be reported, it is important to support the lab member and talk through what happened and why.  The hope is that the next time they want to try a new experiment or something outside of a protocol, that they will trust the manager enough to come to them before a rule is violated.

Naturally, we tend improve the most from the mistakes we make, and Ms. Griffith offered a couple of mistakes from her early career as a lab manager that she has learned from.  One huge early mistake in her lab was to order supplies systematically and uniformly each month without taking consumption and changing needs into account.  The result was an overflow of unused consumables that either sat on shelves or expired and had to be thrown away, a waste of resources.  She recommended avoiding this scenario by tracking changes in lab personnel, their project needs, and scaling orders based on month-to-month usage.  Another rookie mistake that Ms. Griffith mentioned was to try documenting important things from memory and to write things down as she went.  She reiterated the importance of organization, template documents, meticulous documentation, and centralized storage of all management-related items for easy access whenever necessary.

Ms. Griffith’s advice can essentially be boiled down to three words:  organization, organization and organization.  Whether dealing with orders, maintenance records, personnel meetings and conflicts, or referencing lab protocols, it is imperative to not only have up-to-date copies all stored in the same place, but to devise a centralized means of access for other team members and future managers.  Her only wish for improvement within her current laboratory was for a centralized, electronic way for her lab to communicate with her in lieu of writing needs on a whiteboard and/or in person.  Tracking lab supplies in particular would be better served by allowing personnel to make updates (and the manager to note them) in real time.

All of the above advice and tips can be consolidated and put into action with BioData’s web-based secure cloud management system.  With specific applications aimed at targeted lab personnel, BioData ensures maximal laboratory communication, organization and research continuity.  Laboratory management has never been easier – keep all laboratory documentation centralized, maintain orders, enhance logistics and communication, and (for those that will be participating in research) set major milestones all while facilitating real-time communication with graduate students and postdocs.  Especially when responsible for managing a large lab like Ms. Griffith’s, utilizing such technology can not only streamline and improve laboratory productivity, but (Ms. Griffith agreed with us) free up precious time for lab managers that can be apportioned towards other projects or lab needs.

Learn more about organizing your lab and improving management with BioData’s revolutionary new cloud management system by signing up for BioData’s next introductory webinar.  Get even more helpful daily lab tips by following BioData on Twitter and Facebook.