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Helen will share the insights that we learned from 600 labs

At the Biotechnology conference, Helen will share the results of a statistical study that we performed at LabSuit. Having analyzed more than 600 labs we discovered amazing facts regarding different aspects of lab inventory and orders management . What we discovered is that the ability to employ order-request-management and inventory-management systems fuzed together, e.i. at the same place, significantly reduces the number of double orders. We touched this topic before in one of the previous posts. You're invited to Helen lecture this Sunday, on December 17, 2017 at Israel Biotechnology conference.  The detailed conference agenda and speakers list can be found here . Come and learn what we found out and how it can be applied to your research group for better lab processes. Helen holds Ph.D. from Technion and she's  LabSuit  founder and  CEO. 

Fighting Sisyphean lab tasks with timely reminders. Order requests that aren't marked as received longer than usual would receive timely reminders!

Have you ever wondered what happens to your lab when ordered chemical arrives, but neither marked as received nor checked-in? Your lab gets into the deadly loop and inventory becomes out-of-date. With every new item that skips the check-in process, whole system integrity is compromised, which at some point will haunt lab members back. The solution We have great news for our whole lab community!!! Starting from today, LabSuit helps you to follow up on every order request! For example, let's say you submit a request for imidazole. At some point it's status is advanced to "Ordered", but never changed to "Received".  It's likely that the piece of a lab supply was received a long time ago, but no-one marked it as received. Or maybe the item is still stuck at supplier's site. When you have a lot of tasks to take care of, it becomes extremely challenging to follow up on these cases. Also,    sometimes  it may seem like a Sisyphean task.

Good news for Israeli chemists! You can choose Alfa Aesar products either from Tzamal D-Chem or Holland Moran

Following Alfa Aesar acquisition by Fisher Scientific, Israeli chemists got an advantage.  For many years, the exclusive Alfa Aesar representative in Israel was Tzamal D-Chem. However, when Alfa Aesar was acquired by Fisher Scientific, Alfa catalog become available from Holland Moran too, which represents Fisher Scientfic in Israel. Since LabSuit partners with both Tzamal D-Chem and Holland Moran, our users take advantage of camparing prices from both vendors. Try Alfa Aesar items from Tzamal in LabSuit Try Alfa aesra items from Holland Moran in LabSuit Try both! Enjoy the pluralism!  And leave your comments below! 

Lab members at Roee Amit lab at Technion found a clever way to bridge the gap between the lab bench and the computer desk.

Some time ago I wrote a blog post about how LabSuit is used on a mobile device, and how its mobile camera can facilitate your lab requests management . Some time ago on a casual visit to one of Technion labs, our team member found something interesting. Researcher work is split between the lab bench and computer desk Research is conducted in many different environments. Usually, we see researchers wearing white lab suit and protective goggles. After the experiment is conducted, the analysis phase steps in, which requires a computer  desk to work at . Activities, such as scientific conferences, also can be very fruitful and important. Nevertheless, most of the work is split between the bench and a computer desk. Unfortunately, the switch from the bench to the computer and vice versa isn't that quick because of protective gloves the researcher wears and distance in-between. Much of the work is done on the bench  The examples list is endless:  Whether you are distilling titaniu

Thanks to The Hive Gvahim Business Accelerator

"The Hive Gvahim team with industry top-experts  (a.k.a mentors)  literally  poured enormous volumes of value into each participating startup" In era of global Internet access, all human knowledge stands for your service in a matter of a click. The web is full with blogposts and step-by-steps guides that will arguably take one's business to the next level. However, there is one aspect that business accelerator is different. I'm talking about the human touch. The Hive Gvahim Business accelerator Business accelerator is a venture that aims to advance one's business. Participating business is put under magnifying class and all of its components are  analyzed  with mentors' help, who are experts in their field. First, the idea is checked in regards to pain it is supposed to solve for its customers. Accelerator members meet a dozen of mentors which bring their experience on the table. Secondly, the idea is validated in go-to-market regards, when another d

Lab Fairy gives his magical touch to Fernando Patolsky lab at Tel Aviv university

Every lab has its creative chaos. Often it seems as an integral part of a research environment, but when you're tight on time and have scientific papers to submit it will come to haunt you back.  Lab Fairy comes to solve this and turn your experience into more joyful! Why chemicals go astray? While every reagent in the lab should be in its place, the chemical will go astray exactly when you need it the most. The problem isn't unique to a specific lab, but typical to most of the labs.  We tried to track back the sequence of events and understand what was the point of no return for that chemical. The most common case is that the previous chemical user, didn't put it back. And why? Because its wasn't clear where the chemical should be placed and stored. Wow!! Prevent chemicals from getting lost in the lab The solution is pretty simple. Labeling each bottle with its location makes it really easy to return the chemical to its proper location. It's pure s

Found a way to increase your lab management efficiency by 21%

Have you ever spent hours to look for a chemical in your lab, haven't found it and had to order it from the vendor just to find out later that it was there? Though the situation described above may seem as a minor incident, in fact, it has deep consequences. Undesired delays in experiments schedule, double-orders which negatively reflect on lab's budget and we're just scratching the problem surface! Fortunately, having thoroughly studied 120 labs, we found the differentiator that will bring your lab to the new level.  Setting out to find the reason The frustrating part of conducting a research is being distracted all the time. The least wanted distraction is a waste of long hours to look for a required reagent, while it's actually there. Ooof!!!! Recently, we decided to perform a statistical  analysis of  120 labs to determine the reason and later the solution for FALSE NEGATIVE results. Or in other words, when "Inventory Item Not Found" message

LabSuit goes to Vilnius for LOGIN Fare

Good news!!! We're flying to Vilnius, Lithuania to take part in LOGIN Fare, which will take place on 24-26 of May!!! Special thanks to  Startup Lithuania  team for organizing the pitch battle event at Tel Aviv and granting a winning place! LabSuit will have a great company with the other two startups from Israel, Distribyte , and SwitchRTC . We've got some introductions to PI's at Vilnius University, so we plan to get back with new labs that would fall in love with LabSuit! Read more here at the official Startup Lithuania page: http://www.startuplithuania.lt/en/news/switchrtc-distribyte-and-labsuit-coming-to-login-startup-fair-from-tel-aviv

A fruitful way to engage your mobile camera with lab orders management

In general, institute regulations require us to keep Delivery Notes of orders we make. In addition, having access to all Delivery Notes helps us avoid double orders. Surprisingly, keeping a Delivery Note might be a challenging thing. In Ben Gurion university it’s solved by WhatsApp messaging group, where all Delivery Notes are poured. Naturally, the Delivery Notes get lost. In LabSuit Delivery Notes and orders are always kept together. We empowered LabSuit users to take snapshots of your Delivery Notes with smartphones and instantly attach them to respective order in LabSuit! So here it goes! You don’t need to install anything from AppStore or Google Play! Just point your mobile browser to LabSuit and you are good to go! Every order item has a button "Attach Delivery Note". Tapping that button shows up "Take Photo or Video" menu.   Just point your front camera at the Delivery Note and take a shot! Having uploaded the image to

Lab Fairy embraces Eli Lewis's lab at Ben Gurion university of the Negev

When there is a job for Lab Fairy it doesn't matter whether it's in the Noth or in the South - Lab Fairy packs its tools and embarks for an assignment! This time Lab Fairy has got a call from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.  It's a pure pleasure to work with a professional lab manager Having boarded a train heading South, the Lab Fairy had an hour ride to Beer Sheva. At the campus which is shared by hospital and university, Lab Fairy was met by amazing lab manager - Ronen Schuster. Ronen was so positive and cooperative that Lab Fairy had a true pleasure of working with him. Ronen accompanied us to the lab and gave very accurate instructions, so the expectations on both sides were very clear.  Lab Fairy plunged into work. Lab Fairy's target was a fridge full of antibodies. On previous  Lab Fairy  assignments,  there were containers  mostly  with chemicals, therefore dealing with the new type of inventory items made it even more interesting and exciting!

Who is a lab fairy?

We keep getting this question: "Who is a Lab Fairy?" Lab Fairy is something that we came up with to solve labs' nasty problem of monotonous reagents cataloging. Some time ago, we realized that this is the pain-point that many labs would love be solved! That's how Lab Fairy was born. In one of our previous posts, we wrote in more details what Lab Fairy can do for your lab.

Lab fairy is reporting from the field

Lab Fairy has returned from the first visits to labs, and reports from the field are showing up. Lab Fairy visited the laboratory of Prof. Shlomo Magdassi at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem!   ( Who is Lab Fairy? ) Lab Fairy found a bunch of chemical bottles to label and also made sure to properly catalog them with LabSuit. One lab had just transferred many chemicals from one room to another, leaving more than 500 items to be taken care of. An old proverb says: "He works best who knows his trade". First, Lab Fairy analyzed 600 research labs already using LabSuit and learnt what inventory management best practices are best suited for each type of lab. Secondly, the Lab Fairy arrived at the lab equipped with solvent-resistant labeling stickers and different sized and colored markers for making notations. Having discussed the goals with the lab manager, the decision was to give every chemical a serial number. This method is quite popular among

Doing orders for a whole lab is not easy. It becomes really tough when request is submitted, but some details are missing. Let's see how LabSuit solves this.

As someone doing orders for a whole lab, I may feel challenged when I receive order requests and details are partially missing. Sometimes I could fill up the gaps from my acquaintance with a matter, but when I'm out of context it  really   becomes a big deal. Some lab managers raise their voice and ask aloud "Ben! Did you mean 5 grams or 50 grams of Imidazole?" Other lab managers get up from their desk and go for a walk to clarify the request.  But what lab manager has time and energy for that? Emails could have worked but they are just so overwhelming. The solution LabSuit's solution is to integrate chat into Request Details Page, so  item requested  automatically becomes chat topic. As can be seen below, clicking on 'History and updates' takes me to Chat Area. I can address my clarification question to the person who submitted the request and CC (Carbon Copy) any other lab member that I want to keep in the loop. The discussion panel whi

CAS numbers aren't just for chemicals, but also for antibodies, peptides and others

If you look close enough at this picture you can spot two happy Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) members exiting the building. They have just generated 4 new CAS numbers for the very new organic compounds. This building is where they dwell, while we in research and particularly in LabSuit can happily use their fruitful work. CAS numbers In this blogpost I'll be talking about CAS numbers in LabSuit. Many of us use CAS numbers on the daily basis. They help us uniquely identify chemical compounds and avoid moments of frustration. Not a long time ago, in LabSuit, we prescribed CAS number fields for chemicals only. While this may be theoretically fine, for practical purposes that may not always be the case.  CAS numbers have richer context There was a trigger that helped us to drive the change in LabSuit - we talked with Yifat Abramovich from Rapport, Medicine Department of Technion. Ifat is using CAS number for antibodies! Then we analyzed a bigger sample of compounds acros