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Bioinform Newsletter Features LIMS at WU SNP Research Facility

May 10, 2004

ST. LOUIS, MO - The laboratory information management system (LIMS) of a local research laboratory is featured in today's issue of BioInform, a newsletter devoted to bio-informatics. The article, entitled "Wash U Bioinformaticist Sees Broad Use for the LIMS that HapMap Built," describes Dan Koboldt's efforts to develop a LIMS for the HapMap Project and expand it to support a core genotyping facility.

"A bioinformatics developer at the SNP Research Facility at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Koboldt envisions a day when academic genotyping centers will be as essential as the G5 sequencing centers, and he’s already developed the laboratory information management system to support the endeavor, " writes Bernadette Toner of BioInform newsletter. The article goes on to describe how scientists in the Miller laboratory developed a customized LIMS to meet the needs of a high-throughput genotyping core.

BioInform contacted bio-informatics specialist Dan Koboldt after his poster presentation at the International Conference on Research in Computational Molecular Biology (RECOMB) in 2004. The poster, entitled "Building a Laboratory Information Management System for FP-TDI Genotyping Research," focused on the data pipelines that were built to support UCSF-WU participation in the International HapMap Project.

"It was a pleasure to have our system validated by the informatics community," said Koboldt. He added that a focus on automation and strong use of open-source technologies were two core elements that have made their LIMS such a success.

Toner, B. 2004. "Wash U Bioinformaticist Sees Broad Use for the LIMS that HapMap Built" BioInform, volume 8, number 19. www.bioinform.com