"It has always been a real pleasure to collaborate with the eLabNext team. Their staff are always very attentive and available to support us in our requests, take note of our evolution requests , and provide feedback. It feels as if we were all in the same team working together to lead the project successfully."

Institut Pasteur eLabNext Team, IT Department

About the Institut Pasteur

Founded in 1887 and based in Paris, France, Institut Pasteur is an international research and education institute dedicated to advancing science, medicine and public health. As a private non-profit foundation with recognized charitable status, the Institut Pasteur is committed to four core missions of public interest: research, education, population health and innovation development and technology transfer.

Goals

Short-term: The strategic needs of the Institut Pasteur were to address challenges in lab efficiency due to the digitization of all research data and to improve collaboration between internal research units and external partners.

Long-term: Looking ahead, the Institut Pasteur seeks to continually optimize its research workflows to meet growing scientific demands.

Challenges

Across the 12 research departments at the Institut Pasteur, traditional methods of managing documentation and research samples presented important areas for improvement to increase the laboratories`  efficiency. Each research unit  had developed its own approach to lab management, often relying on paper-based systems and disparate digital tools. This lack of standardization led to the risk of loss of research work, with researchers spending considerable time on administrative tasks such as locating samples, tracking data, and organizing experimental records. The varied approaches to data management made it challenging to collaborate within the unit and share research information efficiently.

As the organization’s research activities grew in scale and complexity, these challenges became more pronounced.

Transform your lab’s data management with eLabNext

Solution

Institut Pasteur decided to implement a dedicated tool—an electronic laboratory notebook and sample management system—in all the research units of the institute. The team became aware of eLabNext from discussions with other institutes and online searching. They decided to adopt eLabNext after evaluating more than 20 different electronic lab notebooks (ELN) and sample tracking solutions. The decision was driven by eLabNext’s Digital Lab Platform functionality, ease of use, and cost- effectiveness. The legal and data security aspects were essential for Institut Pasteur.  Scientists participating in the early call for tender assessment phase compared seven solutions, eventually narrowing it down to two, including eLabNext, for proof-of-concept (POC).

The final choice was made by scientists from around 50 different units, considering both their own needs and, importantly, the needs of their colleagues working across diverse research fields.

To help with implementing the new digital lab platform, a dedicated team—which was also in charge of the call for tender and POC—was created within the IT department. This team helped to onboard the technology across staff and facilities for all the research units of Institut Pasteur and overseas institutes.

The implementation process was organized into four deployment waves, with eLabNext’s Digital Lab Platform introduced step-by-step in a structured manner. This included initial presentations, follow-up meetings, review meetings, workshops and monthly training sessions for both existing and new team members.

Results

The implementation of eLabNext’s Digital Lab Platform has rationalized the way laboratories work at the Institut Pasteur. With enhanced data organization features, the recording, tracking and documentation of research activities has become more streamlined and transparent. The equipment module has also been highly beneficial,  to centralize equipment information and organize team bookings. Having a centralized hub for research data has made it easier and more efficient for staff to collaborate, which has become an ever-changing requirement of research. The platform has improved the ease of sharing experiences and collaborating within the lab. Researchers can now upload, generate and associate protocols and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) with specific experiments. This includes linking samples to experiments, which streamlines processes and enhances collaboration across the team. With everything connected—protocols, experiments and samples—the lab enjoys full traceability, making it easy to see what has been done and by whom. The system also provides robust backup capabilities, ensuring that all data is safely stored and accessible. As a result, the research environment has become more transparent and integrated, where collaboration and data sharing are at the core of daily operations.

Future Plans

The Pasteur Institut intends to continue leveraging the eLabNext Digital Lab  Platform to ensure the sustainability and accessibility of research. As research endeavors continue to expand, the research units  expect that eLabNext will enhance its ability to share experimental results, improving communication and fostering discoveries. In the future, the institute also hopes to integrate eLabNext with automated lab workflows, enabling it to advance lab operations in an optimized manner.

Perspectives from the Bacterial Cell Cycle Mechanisms Unit

"eLabNext has been a game-changer for our lab at the Institut Pasteur. Its intuitive interface and robust tracking capabilities have streamlined our sample management, turning what was once a time-consuming task into a swift and effortless process. I'm thoroughly impressed with how eLabNext has transformed our daily operations and would highly recommend it to any lab facing similar challenges."

Mariano Martinez, Research Engineer and Lab Manager, Bacterial Cell Cycle Mechanisms Unit, Institut Pasteur

Our lab Bacterial Cell Cycle Mechanisms is composed of nine members and our central research goal is to understand cell cycle mechanisms in Corynebacteriales, a group of bacteria that include major human pathogens such us Mycobacterium tuberculosis or Corynebacterium diphtheriae. We use a mechanistic cell biology approach to understand how the division and elongation machineries work and how they are regulated in time and space. We want to obtain direct structural information on the overall architecture of the divisome or its subcomplexes; a long-standing goal of the cell division community that remains extremely challenging due to its size, complexity, membrane localization, and highly dynamic nature.

Goals

Short-term:  The Bacterial Cell Cycle Mechanisms Unit handles a wide range of diverse samples, making an efficient sample management and retrieval process important. To support this evolution, the team is implementing a more streamlined search and recovery process. Enhancing the organization and accessibility of research records is also a priority, ensuring that information is readily available for all team members.

Long-term: By focusing on digitalizing research practices, the unit aims to continue making valuable contributions to the scientific community and beyond.

Challenges

Before adopting eLabNext’s Digital Lab Platform, the laboratories within the Bacterial Cell Cycle Mechanisms Unit relied on traditional paper notebooks to document experimental designs, protocols and results. Research data was scattered across different silos and locations, including a mixture of personal computers, external drives and cloud storage.  

The previous approach to generating and storing data sometimes made it time-consuming to retrieve specific information. This was particularly relevant when staff transitioned between labs or changed roles. Recognizing the opportunity for improvement, the unit aimed to implement a centralized and efficient system that facilitated easier access to experiments and samples. By digitalizing research practices, the team ensured that data is accessible from anywhere, thereby enhancing research continuity and integrity.

Solution

eLabNext provided a solution tailored to the specific needs of each lab, while also aligning with the global shift towards digitalization and the need for seamless data sharing and collaboration. This new approach enables team members to easily find and share data both within the lab and across research units, ensuring accessibility from anywhere, even outside the Institut Pasteur framework. As a result, the digitalization of data has not only ensured the longevity of critical information but also optimized workflows and increased lab efficiency.

Results

Since adopting eLabNext the Bacterial Cell Cycle Mechanisms Unit has experienced a transformation in how it manages research data and samples. The centralized digital lab platform has vastly improved the organization and accessibility of research records, making it easier for researchers to document and retrieve experimental data. This new approach has transformed the way the team works, ensuring that data is always accessible to scientists and the entire team.

The unit has also noticed a significant improvement in sample tracking and retrieval thanks to eLabNext’s advanced inventory browser feature. It offers a thorough overview of sample storage, usage and any related data from previous experiments, making it an invaluable tool for managing the large and diverse number of samples handled by the Bacterial Cell Cycle Mechanisms Unit across various research projects. The powerful integration between the lab’s inventory and centralized digital lab platform makes tracing samples to results easy, streamlining daily operations.

Future Plans

Looking ahead, the Bacterial Cell Cycle Mechanisms Unit at the Institut Pasteur plans to continue leveraging eLabNext to further enhance their research capabilities. As the unit continues to expand its research efforts, they are exploring the potential of integrating additional eLabNext tools and add-ons to support more advanced research needs.

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