Rescentris | Links

Rescentris was founded by life scientists. We believe that scientific research is a force for great good and indeed, a societal imperative. For us, finding new ways to contribute to the scientific community is not just a business, it’s our passion. On this page we will provide links to resources, news items and short articles that we hope you will find useful, interesting and educational.

From the article:

“Every year, the US Food and Drug Administration issues scores of Warning Letters to pharmaceutical, medical device, and biologics companies. Many companies’ violations center on failure to have, or to properly use, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), the most fundamental component of current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMPs). Although different regulations apply to each of the life sciences sectors, SOP compliance is required for all companies within those business arenas.”

CERF 3.5 includes features for distributing and managing SOPs. Our customers have told us that in some cases, this functionality alone will save them weeks of labor and be an indispensable tool for assuring SOP compliance in the event of an FDA audit.

ELN, Bioinformatics, and Lab Compliance Resources

CENSA Collaborative Electronic Notebook Informatics for R&D Manufacturing is an international industry association and consulting organization, focused on driving state of the art electronic records systems and collaborative informatics technologies in developer and software end user organizations.

The Integrated Lab, maintained by our friend John Trigg, is a community website open to anybody with an interest in any aspect of laboratory integration. An integrated lab is one where the various technology components are designed to work together and mesh with established industry standards, technologies, platforms and data formats.

21CFR11 - The Code of Federal Regulations Title 21 Part 11 is a regulation that provides criteria for acceptance by the FDA of electronic records, electronic signatures, and handwritten signatures executed to electronic records.

LabCompliance.com - A great resource for learning about the latest trends in compliance and regulation. Includes compliance-related white papers and links to validation consultants and related services.

NIH statement regarding availability of data. CERF is a great way to share data and Rescentris is an approved NIH vendor. Consider adding a component requesting CERF in your next NIH grant application.

ORI - The Office of Research Integrity oversees and directs research integrity activities on behalf of the US Department of Health and Human Services. The misconduct section makes sobering reading and presents case studies that illustrate all too clearly what can happen when established mechanisms for scientific oversight and compliance go awry.

A2LA - The American Association for Laboratory Accreditation is a nonprofit, non-governmental, public service, membership society. A2LA provides comprehensive services in laboratory accreditation and laboratory-related training.

BSML- Bioinformatic Sequence Markup Languageis an extensible language specification and container for bioinformatic data. The founders of Rescentris were heavily involved in the formal development of this language. Bioinformatic language technology is now Open-Source; we simply provide this link for your convenience.

Wikipedia entry for “ELN” - Watch this entry to see how the socially constructed definition for “Electronic Laboratory Notebook” evolves over time.

Swarthmore College - Maintains a site that includes pen and paper lab notebook tips for undergraduates. The general advice on this page holds just as true for users of ELNs.

Recent FDA Compliance Warning Letters - You don’t want your lab to end up on this list. CERF is a great way to share data and Rescentris is an approved NIH vendor. Consider adding a component requesting CERF in your next NIH grant application.CERF uses advanced semantic technologies to help scientists categorize and efficiently search for useful data. To learn more about why this is beneficial, check out this blog entry. Like everything else on CERF, these semantic technologies are based on well established open standards; specifically Web Ontology Language (OWL) and Resource Description Framework (RDF). You can find more resources for the use of semantic technologies in managing science data at Semantic-Science.org and Semanticage.com.

Networking with other ELN users
Visit the Rescentris facebook page! Network with other users and Rescentris staff. Share your experiences and ideas, contribute to the CERF user community.

Depth-First - Walking the web of Chemical Informatics. Maintained by Rich Apodaca, a chemist and software developer in San Diego, California. The comments section has become a popular forum for the exchange of Ideas about ELN trends and technologies.

QuantumThoughts - Dr. Wolfgang Rumpf has been working on ELNs – both as a developer, and a user – since 1990, he is now working for Rescentris Inc., where he is the product expert for the Rescentris CERF electronic lab notebook. He shares his insights into the ELN world as well as personal tips and anecdotes on life science research.

LinkedIn LIMS/Laboratory Informatics Group - This is the first and the largest LinkedIn group for people who work with or are interested in LIMS (Laboratory Information Management Systems), ELN (Electronic Laboratory Notebooks), and LI (Laboratory Informatics). A great place to make professional connections and discuss trends in the industry. The group is administered by LIMS consultant Gloria Metrick.

CERF trivia

We are often asked if the name CERF is some kind of a nod to famous computer scientist Vint Cerf who played a role in the early development of the internet. It turns out that although we are big fans of Vint, according to our founders, the fact that our network-based software product shares his name is purely a coincidence.

Similarly we have no connection to the Canine Eye Registration Foundation, or the Coastal Environmental Rights Foundation which people often seem to find when searching for us!