eCAT: the video

The following long video shows what you can do with eCAT and who it is for. It is split into chapters which you can use to jump into the video at various points of interest. Click here or on the video below to watch it.

What can you do with eCAT?

eCAT lets you create and edit experiments and manage and share data over the web. Everyone in the team - a lab or groups of labs - can share the diverse collections of data that scientists generate, such as images and spreadsheets, and manage shared facilities, results and ideas. You can also use eCAT to manage your inventory, whether it's freezer samples, animals or supplies. And, eCAT is online so you and other team members can access it anytime, anywhere, from any web browser. More...

Who is eCAT for?

eCAT is for lab scientists. It quickly becomes an indispensable tool for labs - be careful because early adopters have reported a problem with addiction! It's also an ideal collaboration environment for research consortia where scientists from dispersed labs need to manage and share data. eCAT is being used across a wide range of disciplines, from biology to chemistry to physiology, and in all sorts of settings, from universities to research hospitals to government research and regulatory agencies to small biotechs. More...

eCAT editions

eCAT comes in Team Hosted, Install and Personal versions. Depending on your collaboration needs and IT environment, you may find that one version is more appropriate for your organization. Which one is right for you? More...

eCAT features

eCAT runs entirely in the web browser and works across Windows, Linux and OSX. It serves as a powerful, integrated environment for documenting research and managing and sharing data. Its many essential features include:

• Powerful data entry and editing capability
• The flexibility of working with existing file storage solutions and uploading files to new storage areas
• Simple yet powerful search with the ability to customize what you are searching for in great detail
• Export to CSV, Excel and XML
• A powerful permissions system to control who has access to what data
• A complete system of user and group functionality to control access by group, individual or both
• "Fully typed data" with the common types (String, Text, Radio, Date, Time etc) fully supported
• The ability for users to create their own classes (collections of data types)
• The ability to sign and authorize projects and experiments for regulatory and compliance purposes
• A familiar interface - a tree like in Windows to browse data and an editing interface similar to a traditional paper lab notebook
• Support for the import and thumbnailing of many of the more common scientific image formats, such as LSM, TIFF and STK
• A full administrative system and audit features

More...

Plugins & image formats

Scientists use a variety of bespoke and standard image formats in their work. These come from microscopes and a variety of other sources. eCAT comes with a range of plugins that allow the extraction of the images (including any subplanes) and the metadata from these formats. Some of the more common formats supported are LSM, STK and TIFF and there are many more. More...

eCAT compared to alternatives

Find out how eCAT stacks up in terms of features, ease of use and functionality against alternatives like paper lab books, spreadsheets, databases and wikis. More...

What users say

Users have called eCAT "addictive", said it is "absolutely essential to the running of my lab", and noted that "the organization eCAT brings to the lab makes people's time more effective and productive (and often less stressful!)". Find out more about not only why users like eCAT, and how they are deploying it in particular research contexts. More...