With a new LIMS for managing laboratory animal studies, researchers in the animal house of the Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI) can now blindly randomize with one person. A step towards professionalization has been made with this study management system. Data and reports are a lot clearer and always up to date.
With the commissioning of a professional LIMS, NKI can finally start building a reliable and clear study management system for its animal research. A long-cherished wish has now come true. The institute had been looking for a good laboratory management system for its blind randomized studies for years, but no package seemed to meet the specific requirements. With the software installed last year it turns out to be possible: a LIMS with so much flexibility that the in-house IT professional can only dream of.
From Excel application to LIMS
Before the arrival of the LIMS, iLES from iVention, data management was done with an Excel application. At a certain point, however, Marieke van de Ven (Head of Mouse Cancer Clinic) and Sander Morrien (Information Manager) at the animal laboratory of the Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI) got stuck on the rigidity of their Excel sheets. With 120-160 intervention studies, they were faced with large overviews that no longer met the requirements for clear and error-free work
Study management system for laboratory animal research
Van de Ven explains the limitations of working in Excel: “The Excel sheets we had created were quite good. With pop-ups and many formulas. Yet it is limiting, because you can never work in one system at the same time and errors are made when entering and reading, which remains human work. In addition, two people always had to be present during double-blind randomization; one with the laboratory animal mouse in hand and the other with the computer mouse.”
Morrien agrees with this: “We were specifically looking for a study management system that can maintain an individual laboratory animal treatment plan and also compare it with the treatment schedule of all laboratory animals in that cohort. This is now possible with iLES and we can also define each treatment arm accurately and per time point.”
Complex Program of Requirements
And that is a big advantage. Because the complexity at the in vivo NKI experiments are that they only place a test animal in a treatment group once the tumor has reached a certain size. Van de Ven: “Many intervention studies work with a fixed starting time for all animals, but in our way the data is more realistic and you have to work less with averages. It just generates a lot of extra parameters and variables.”
Morrien agrees: “We indeed have an extensive step-by-step plan with many small steps, so our Program of Requirements was complex. When we started implementing iLES in April 2023, I often sat down with iVention. The standard modules were soon installed, but 80% did not work for us. Fortunately, I was able to adjust a lot myself and the supplier was always willing to tinker with the system together.”
Involving employees in the LIMS implementation
Rolling out a new system is always exciting and can cause resistance among employees. Van de Ven was in favor of this: “That is why we deliberately asked a number of our biotechnicians from the start to think about the wishes for this LIMS.” The researchers they work for were informed at a later stage. They now receive all treatment data in uniform, neat and professional customized reports. “This makes the data much clearer. In the future we also want to be able to plot graphs via the LIMS.”
Immediately test run
The new application was soon tested. “We were advised to immediately enter our new studies into the new system. Then you do a lot of duplicate work in the beginning, but we have now passed this transition phase and everything is in the new data management system. Now it should pay off in more accurate and efficient work,” Van de Ven adds.
New procedures, fewer errors
Of course, such a digital system is new for everyone. The employees of the laboratory animal house also had to make it their own. Natalie Proost, facility coordinator Mouse Cancer Clinic, shares her experiences: “We had to adjust in quite a few areas; our procedures changed, our regular routines were overhauled and the data suddenly looked different.”
She reflects: “Yes, it took some getting used to working with the new – digital – caliper to measure the tumors. On the other hand, additional chipping of the animals was easily learned.
Proost refers to the toe clipping and the ear clipping that are used for identification and genetic characterization in genetically modified (GM) mice. During ear cutting, one or more triangles or circles are cut or punched out of one or both ears. This method is preferably carried out well before weaning age.” Boeije: “Yes, there is one big advantage with the new system, we can no longer make mistakes when reading the ear cut. That often went wrong with the 4 and the 7. And what is very nice is that we no longer have to retype tumor measurements from Excel. This way we make fewer mistakes and the results are more objective.”
Data always up to date
Saving time was not the aim of the automation drive. Ensuring quality even more so. “The checks do not seem to be any faster,” Boeije continues, “even though you can now simply scan the animals and cages. This is because we have to check more boxes, click through and make choices. You now tick a box after the daily check or you mark an animal with a tick for extra checks in between.”
Proost adds: “Ultimately, the rest of the work process takes less time. And the data is always up to date. You can see the treatment overview and treatment history at a glance. Or you will receive a notification if you have forgotten a check or if out-of-spec. Because LIMS also does the calculations for us. This way, you walk home feeling more comfortable at the end of the day, because you feel like you have everything more under control.”
LIMS wish list
The possibilities have increased enormously with this study management system, Morrien explains. “We recently conducted a resistance study, in which we had about 50 variables. Previously, this would have cost us at least 1,000 Excel sheets, but now I can set it up in software terms in a few hours.” Van de Ven is satisfied with their move to a more professional system and sees opportunities for the future. “I would like to have the search functions within the iLES system further developed. If researchers want to test a particular cell line, we can check whether it has been used before and what the results were. Better searchable data ultimately also means less laboratory animal testing.”
Nederlands