In the last post, we learned about the FinchLab order form builder and some of its features for developing different kinds of interfaces for entering sample information. Three factors contribute to the power of Finch orders. First, labs can create unique entry forms by selecting items like pull down menus, check boxes, radio buttons, and text entry fields for numbers or text, from a web page. No programming is needed. Second, for core labs with business needs, the form fields can be linked to diverse price lists. Third, the subject of this post, is that the forms are also linked to different kinds of workflows.
What are Workflows?
A workflow is a series of series of steps that must be performed to complete a task. In genetic analysis, there are two kinds of workflows: those that involve laboratory work, and those that involve data processing and analysis. The laboratory workflows prepare sample materials so that data can be collected. For example, in gene expression studies, RNA is extracted from a source material (cells, tissue, bacteria), and converted to cDNA for sequencing. The workflow steps may involve purification, quality analysis on agarose gels, concentration measurements, and reactions where materials are further prepared for additional steps.
The data workflows encompass all the steps involved in tracking, processing, managing, and analyzing data. Sequence data are processed by programs to create assemblies and alignments that are edited or interrogated to create genomic sequences, discover variation, understand gene expression, or perform other activities. Other kinds of data workflows such as microarray analysis, or genotyping involve developing and comparing data sets to gain insights. Data workflows involve file manipulations, program control, and databases. The challenge for the scientist today, and the focus of Geospiza's software development is to bring the laboratory and data workflows together.
Workflow Systems
Workflows can be managed or unmanaged. Whether you work at the bench or work with files and software, you use a workflow any time you carry out a procedure with more than one step. Perhaps you wite the steps in your notebook, check them off as you go, and tape in additional data like spectrophotometer readings or photos. Perhaps you write papers in Word and format the bibliography with Endnote or resize photos with Photoshop before adding them to a blog post. In all these cases you performed unmanaged workflows.
Managing and tracking workflows becomes important as the number of activities and number of individuals performing them increase in scale. Imagine your lab bench procedures performed multiple times a day with different individuals operating particular steps. This scenario occurs in core labs that perform the same set of processes over and over again. You can still track steps on paper, but it's not long before the system becomes difficult to manage. It takes too much time to write and compile all of the notes, and it's hard to know which materials have reached which step. Once a system goes beyond the work of a single person, paper notes quit providing the right kinds of overviews. You now need to manage your workflows and track them with a software system.
A good workflow system allows you to define the steps in your protocols. It will provide interfaces to move samples through the steps and also provide ways to add information to the system as steps are completed. If the system is well-designed, it will not allow you do things at inappropriate times or require too much "thinking" as the system is operated. A well-designed system will also reduce complexity and allow you to build workflows through software interfaces. Good systems give scientists the ability to manage their work, they do not require their users to learn arcane programming tools or resort to custom programming. Finally, the system will be flexible enough to let you create as many workflows as you need for different kinds of experiments and link those workflows to data entry forms so that the right kind of information is available to right process.
FinchLab Workflows
The Geospiza FinchLab workflow system meets the above requirements. The system has a high level workflow that understands that some processes require little tracking (a quick test) and other's require more significant tracking ("I want to store and reuse DNA samples"). More detailed processes are assigned workflows that consist of thee parts: A name, a "State," and a 
"Status." The "State" controls the software interfaces and determines which information are presented and accessed at different parts of a process. A sequencing or genotyping reaction, for example, cannot be added to a data collection instrument until it is "ready." The other part specifies the steps of the process. The steps of the process (Statuses) are defined by the lab and added to a workflow using the web interfaces. When a workflow is created, it is given a name, as many steps as needed, and it is assigned a State. The workflows are then assigned to different kinds of items so that the system always knows what to do next with the samples that enter.A workflow management system like FinchLab makes it just as easy to track the steps of Sanger DNA sequencing, as it is to track the steps of a Solexa, SOLiD, or 454 sequencing processes. You can also, in the same system, run genotyping assays and other kinds of genetic analysis like microarrays and bead assays.
Next time, we'll talk about what happens in the lab.
No comments:
Post a Comment