Submitted to the faculty of the School of Informatics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Science in Chemical Informatics (Laboratory Informatics Specialization), Indiana University, June 2006 / Industry and academic laboratories have long resisted conversion to electronic laboratory notebooks (ELN) while at the same time integrating many other kinds of information systems, most notably laboratory information management systems (LIMS), chromatography data systems (CDS), and scientific data management systems (SDMS), within laboratory operations. Scientists in both academia and industry stand to gain important functionality unavailable with paper notebooks with the adoption of ELNs such as comprehensive searching of notebooks (keyword, result, and molecular structure/substructure searching, for example); distributed availability; and long term access to data. Currently, most laboratory information systems operate independently, requiring manual data entry by users into each individual system. This process creates data and information disparities as well as creating poor referential integrity within experimental metadata. Electronic laboratory notebooks would provide a logical point around which experiment details and observations could be centered electronically. Through an ELN, experimental documentation or metadata could be communicated automatically with a LIMS, SDMS, or CDS without analyst involvement. This “electronically connected” system would allow analysts to perform their responsibilities without the interruption of independent information systems thus increasing analyst productivity and reducing user entry errors into data management systems. The thesis project consisted of two phases: the first phase was the implementation of an ELN and the second phase was the development of a software developer kit (SDK) for LABTrack based on Web Services. In the first phase of the project the adoption of an ELN, was studied within a classroom laboratory (G823 Introduction to Cell Biology) over the course of one academic semester. In the second phase of the project an SDK for LABTrack was developed to allow the importation of information from custom developed applications into LABTrack. Finally, a web portal integrating LABTrack and NuGenesis was developed to demonstrate the capabilities of the LABTrack SDK and existing capabilities of the NuGenesis SDK.

L'objectif de mon travail de thèse était de développer des outils bio informatiques permettant d'améliorer la traditionnelle gestion de l'information scientifique au sein d'un grand centre de recherche et en particulier au sein d'une plateforme de génomique. Trois outils ont été développés: un cahier de laboratoire électronique, un système de gestion de l'information de laboratoire pour des applications de génomique dont le séquençage de nouvelle génération, ainsi qu'un système de gestion des échantillons pour de grandes bio-banques. Ce travail a été réalisé en étroite collaboration avec des biologistes, épidémiologistes et informaticiens. Il a également inclus la mise en place d'interactions entre les différents outils pour former un système informatique intégré. Les trois outils ont été rapidement adoptés par l'ensemble des scientifiques du centre de recherche et sont désormais utilisés au quotidien pour le suivi de toutes les activités de laboratoire mais aussi plus globalement pour les autres activités scientifiques du centre de recherche. Ces outils sont transposables dans d'autres instituts de recherche / The aim of my thesis work was to develop bioinformatics tools to improve the traditional scientific information management within a large research centre and especially within a genomics platform. Three tools have been developed: an electronic laboratory notebook, a laboratory information management system for genomics applications including next generation sequencing, as well as a sample management system for large biobanks. This work has been conducted in close collaboration with biologists, epidemiologists and IT specialists. It has also included the setup of interactions between the different tools to make an integrated IT system. The three tools have been rapidly adopted by all the scientists of the research centre and are now daily used for the tracking of all the laboratory’s activities but also more globally for the research centre’s other scientific activities. These tools are transposable in other research institutes