Q. Tell us a bit about the research you are doing.

I’m a Research Associate working in the lab of Dr. Michael Skinner at WSU. Our lab has a number of different research directions, but the one I’m most involved in is with our work investigating the transgenerational epigenetic effects of compounds exposed to soldiers in Iraq. Specifically, we are investigating if exposure to these chemicals to rats during embryonic development might play a role in reproductive abnormalities and disease susceptibility to the multigenerational offspring (i.e. "children", "grandchildren", and "great-grandchildren") of female rats exposed to these chemicals during pregnancy.

Q. What gave rise to the need for an ELN?

Our lab was primarily interested in an ELN that would help solve a problem we were having tracking a growing collection of samples, and correlating those samples to analysis that was performed later on paraffin-embedded and stained tissue from the same animal. In other words, we wanted to be able to have a system that would allow us to easily track information on analyzed samples and be able to tie those results to stored tissues derived from the same animal.

Q. What was it that attracted you to e-CAT?

The great thing that we saw in e-CAT was a system that could be suited to varying needs as they change over time. It had a nice architecture in place that could be well suited to our needs right now, but also one that was flexible enough to handle all kinds of different data needs as they emerge in the future.

We were also really impressed with the team at Axiope and their willingness to work with us in making sure that the product met our needs, and helped tremendously as we were getting everything up and running. Even though our physical location and time zones were much different, we always had really timely responses to questions and were excited about the opportunity to have input into the ongoing development of e-CAT’s inventory management capabilities.

Q. I know you are using e-CAT for inventory management - tell us a bit about that.

Inventory management has been a huge part of how we are utilizing e-CAT thus far, and it has worked very well for tracking animals and sample locations. Once the system was established and our staff was trained on its use, it became very easy to make sure that we know exactly where all of the samples are located. It’s a huge time saver, and the system was flexible enough to meet our needs right away.

Q. How do the various members of the group use e-CAT?

We have a couple members in the lab that are starting to utilize e-CAT’s lab notebook features, but mostly we have been relying on it for inventory management of archived samples that will be used in upcoming analyses.

Q. How do you see e-CAT as a platform as your research needs continue to evolve?

We are really interested in utilizing e-CAT more extensively as an electronic lab notebook, as increasingly more of our analyses comes in digital form and does not need to be translated to be stored electronically. But right now we are focused on making sure that the system is kept up-to-date in order to track the hundreds of samples that our experiment is generating and ensuring that every experimental result is recorded accurately.

In the future we are planning to transition our lab to e-CAT’s electronic lab notebook, as it would greatly reduce the potential problem of losing access to data as lab members come and go over time.