Damp Lab and eLabNext partner to launch app for easy ordering and outsourcing of molecular biology services

The Design, Automation, Manufacturing, and Processes (DAMP) Lab and eLabNext announced a formal partnership today to coincide with the kick-off of the International Workshop for BioManufacturing Automation 2024 at Boston University (BU). The cooperative plan will focus on building an ordering platform for the DAMP lab’s suite of molecular biology services, which will be called DAMP Lab Canvas, and integrating it with the eLabNext Digital Lab Platform (DLP). 

“This initiative could provide an open-ecosystem software to biotech companies and the entire science community that could streamline their manufacturing and discovery processes,” explains Professor Douglas Densmore, Director of the DAMP Lab. “We chose to collaborate with eLabNext because the platform is so easy to use and the positive, supportive relationship we’ve developed over years of working alongside one another.”

For the past few years, the DAMP Lab and eLabNext have worked together, most notably during the COVID-19 pandemic, to process 2.4 million COVID-19 tests between 2020 and 2022 to limit the spread of the virus across the BU campus. The eLabNext DLP was integral in this effort, acting as a robust ELN & LIMS for protocol storage, inventory management, and sample tracking. 

“This collaboration is rooted in an alignment on several foundational values, all to encourage innovation in the scientific community,” says Zareh Zurabyan, Head of eLabNext, Americas. “Creating the tools for any organization to build an ecosystem that connects all of their digital needs to optimize their physical lab operations is a win for everyone. On a more granular level, this collaboration simplifies the ordering process, connects customers directly with vendors, and facilitates the transfer of protocols and other information between eLabNext and other laboratory systems. Together, we hope to garner more engagement in automated LIMS management and ease the burden of order placement with the DAMP Lab.” 

About DAMP Lab at BU

The mission of the DAMP lab at Boston University is to develop novel biological systems using formal representations of protocols and experiments for the specify-design-build-test cycle. This will allow for faster, more scalable, and reproducible research results that can be transitioned from academia to society. They use their expertise to deliver consistent, reproducible, and high-throughput results that can be shared among researchers. These characteristics are vital to address synthetic biology-related research efforts where time, cost, scalability, and result quality are paramount. The DAMP Lab offers over 45 molecular biology protocols, including DNA assembly, PCR, DNA/RNA purification, cloning (transformation, plating, colony picking, DNA quantification), preparation of libraries for next-generation sequencing, gene reporter assays, flow cytometry sample preparation, among others.

Press contact: 

Name: Courtney Tretheway
Operations Director, DAMP Lab
Email: catret@bu.edu
Website: https://www.damplab.org/

‍