Lab Management

Upstream processing (USP) includes the early stages of bioprocessing, including choosing cells for application, cell line identification and verification, cell culture, media preparation, and cell separation. The goal of the USP is to develop reproducible cell characteristics that can be harvested for drug development while ensuring purity and quality at every step.

Due to the sensitive nature of cells, even the most minute modification could result in downstream variation and wasted spending. Therefore, USP steps must be followed with extreme caution and attention to detail, and labs must track all relevant data points for each cell line, including media preparation, observations, vendors, equipment, personnel, etc. In the case of unexpected variation, labs that keep sufficient records are more likely to pinpoint root causes and rectify the source of error quickly.

CellPort facilitates and tracks all upstream bioprocessing from cell development to cultivation. Auto-scheduling & reminders ensure that the right actions are taken at the right time, while digital protocols and data analysis help labs track and monitor cell behavior throughout the process. CellPort not only helps expedite regulatory audits, but also ensures the smooth transition to downstream processing (DSP) processes.

Whether for compliance, quality control, or overall project management, labs must be able to generate at-a-glance insights about their products, workflows, and operations. Traditionally, creating these reports involved large amounts of time and energy sorting through lab manuals or complex spreadsheets, restricting managers’ and leadership’s ability to make decisions based on real-time data. Moreover, these reports often contained inaccuracies due to human error, putting data integrity at risk.

By collecting data via automated integrations (i.e., barcoding) on a centralized database, modern labs can generate a variety of reports in just a few minutes. With new insights, lab managers can streamline procurement processes, make personnel decisions, optimize spend, and expedite the audit process.

As the capabilities of artificial intelligence expand into the life science realm, labs equipped with standardized data stores will unlock new opportunities to trace cell lines, identify characteristics, enhance the drug discovery process, and so much more. CellPort offers a centralized platform with one-click reporting and advanced analytics to help empower your leadership with real-time data.

With large groups of scientists, technicians, managers, leadership, and third parties working together across various time zones and locations, inefficient collaboration and lack of communication integrity inevitably cause severe delays to a project. With technician turnover at all-time highs, it’s never been more important for labs to give employees a platform to upskill quickly, ask questions, and escalate issues to avoid delays or downstream confusion.

To streamline workflows and eliminate delays, labs must maintain effective, cross-organizational channels of communication. Moreover, lab managers must do their best to keep any offline communication online, to be able to address similar challenges in the future and also to comply with regulatory audits.

While paper lab manuals and communication systems like email offer little help to improve a lab’s ability to collaborate in a meaningful way, centralized collaboration platforms like CellPort ensure that issues are promptly escalated to the appropriate decision-makers. To keep helpful notes or observations accessible to all – instead of buried within old lab manuals – CellPort allows users to directly comment on digital protocols with full traceability. For more pointed comms, CellPort users can use @-functionality to streamline responses and keep audit trails for future reference.