The McVey Lab in the Biology department studies DNA repair in model systems, such as Drosophila, using genetic mutants in repair pathways. The lab has relied heavily on paper notebooks to record procedures, experimental methods and materials, and results. The McVey lab also has many research collaborations with labs at other institutions.

The lab needs to manage the data and knowledge generated by students and postdocs to reduce any loss of expertise when students and postdocs leave the lab. Thus, being able to manage and collect data from multiple data sources as the lab moves to new methodologies, such as nextgen sequencing, is a requirement. Secure access, either local or remote, to procedures and data from the lab are also key criteria. Finally, meeting the funding agency requirements for Research Data Management is also a critical need.

To address these needs, the McVey lab has chosen LabArchives as their research data management solution due to the ease of use and versatility in creating notebooks for the lab, as well as its accessibility. Prof. McVey is very satisfied with LabArchives overall as he and his lab tech use it heavily. McVey is able to keep up to date with what is happening in his lab using LabArchives. The lab tech uses LabArchives to help manage the various laboratory processes. The lab uses several notebooks in LabArchives: a notebook for all students and experimental details, a notebook for lab management, and a personal notebook for McVey.

Planning the organization of a notebook (by Project, by Person, etc) involves a rigorous decision making process to make sure to start with the right data structure since it will be used for a long time. McVey encourages his students to use the LabArchives notebooks but it has been a slow process. To increase usage, McVey suggests requiring that his students use LabArchives to present material during lab meetings where results can be presented and displayed electronically.

The Tytell Lab in the Biology department studies the biomechanics and neural control of swimming in fishes using experiments and mathematical modeling to understand the control of fish locomotion. The lab makes use of video recordings and graphical analysis of video recordings using Matlab. Additionally, the lab has many collaborations with external researchers at other universities.

Of primary importance to the Tytell lab is to provide a complete and lasting record of discovery as well as to reduce loss of lab expertise by providing a repository of information. As a result, being able to search through laboratory data files and notes efficiently in a safe and secure fashion is a priority.

To address these needs, the Tytell lab has chosen LabArchives as their research data management solution. The lab has been using LabArchives for the past 3 years with 9 current users. LabArchives allows multiple notebooks and the lab has 2 project based notebooks and a lab management notebook. The lab feels that being able to use the robust search capabilities of LabArchives is crucial to managing long term projects and data. The ability to share selected data is also an important component of their collaborations with other universities.

Though moving content within a notebook is straightforward, moving content between notebooks has proved to be more difficult. The Tytell lab suggests that planning an optimal notebook structure at the beginning is the key to success.