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BioRails Request
Fulfilment Driving Discovery Research
The BioRails request fulfilment and work flow solution facilitates
the progression of compounds from early screening to late stage
safety assessment, commonly known as the compound cascade.
The work flow closes the loop between requests for compounds to
be tested against sets of assays and selection of compounds for
further assessment. Typically this process is done manually by
scientists through emails with limited tracking. The request
fulfilment work flow solution is designed to support project teams
tracking progress of the project and services teams managing their
work load to ensure smooth transfer of information and traceable
progress of compounds across the cascade.
“Managing research projects is always a challenge, the BioRails
request fulfilment solution helps project leaders drive research
forward and scientists to manage their work efficiently whilst
managers can track the progress of the project”
Request fulfilment work flow solution
Copyright The Edge ©2009 Page 1 of 14
Request fulfilment
work flow The coordination of research
activities between scientists,
disciplines and across
laboratories, departments
and sites is one of the key
challenges facing
pharmaceutical companies.
The organisation and execution modules of BioRails are combined to provide a request fulfilment solution
allowing project teams to drive the research process through request for services to be executed against a list of
items. This is linked to a set of service queues which are used by laboratory managers to organise the fulfilment of
work orders and deliver final results back to the requesting project teams for decision making.
Basic concepts
The request-fulfilment work flow has been designed to focus on the needs, skills and expectations of
pharmaceutical R&D scientists.
We have identified three types of scientists using the system:
1. Project Lead (Walter Skinner) - drives research through the submission of requests
2. Lab Manager (Dana Scully) - manages the fulfilment of requests by scheduling experiments and allocating
work to her team
3. Bench Scientist (Diana Fowler) - completes a set of tasks that appear on her to-do list resulting in the
processing of request items
Simple, traceable requests
The process of making a request is very simple. A list of items (usually items such as compounds, libraries or
targets) is submitted to a collection of services with a required date and a requested priority. Once submitted,
the requester can track the status of the request and, once completed, retrieve the results.
Walter, the project lead is expected to drive the research process or cascade forward. This requires access to high
quality biological information from which he can formulate and refine his hypothesis. For any set of compounds,
it is likely that he will need data from a range of assays, for example screening data against multiple targets or a
compound profile covering efficacy, behavioural side effects, and ADME properties. On initiation of the project
the team will define a set of activities and an outline order, often referred to as a flow scheme or plan for the
project. In the lead optimisation phase compounds must be submitted to a series of assays that are used to
explore the structure activity relationship (SAR). Requests are often made by selecting columns of the SAR and
submitting compounds to services that deliver these results.
Request fulfilment work flow solution
Copyright The Edge ©2009 Page 1 of 14
Whilst he has a good understanding of the data generated during the cascade, he does not necessarily need or
want to know how the assays are conducted. For example he may request for a compound to be tested without
specifying a specific batch or sample. The biologist will request delivery of assay ready plates as part of the
fulfilment process without the knowledge of the requester.
In this example four compounds have been submitted for testing against three services.
Request fulfilment work flow solution
Copyright The Edge ©2009 Page 1 of 14
The progress of requests can be tracked throughout the life time of the request from acceptance to delivery of
results which can be accessible directly from the request. Each service item (compound) is automatically passed
to a matching service queue managed by the laboratory manager responsible for the service.
Triage, reviewing the requests
The lab manager, Dana, will review the service queue, accepting, rejecting or forwarding either the full request or
individual items within it. She receives requests from multiple projects teams and can prioritise requests
according to project priorities and operational considerations. The project team can provide comments and
documentation along with the original request stored within the request folder. The service queue is used to
distribute the work load amongst relevant team members. Once completed, she will review the work and
complete the request, placing any documentation or reports in the request folder which are delivered with the
completed request.
Request fulfilment work flow solution
Copyright The Edge ©2009 Page 1 of 14
Processing the request items
The lab manager, Dana, will schedule experiments using the work flow module, automatically incorporated
request items into tasks which are allocated to scientists within her team1. Diana, the bench scientist simply
works through the tasks in her to-do list or calendar. Tasks can also be accessed from the MS Office environment
using office productivity tools like Excel to complete her work. Dana can plan and schedule her teams work
together with their other commitments using Outlook.
Lab managers can design the work flow such that information related to request items such as the compound
molecular weight or structures are automatically available. The work flow designs can be used again and again to
facilitate routine work, but are flexible enough to allow variation supporting less routine experiments such as in
vivo pharmacology and behavioural studies.
1 This is an optional step and only required if data is to be 'returned' to the original request when the task is published.
Request fulfilment work flow solution
Copyright The Edge ©2009 Page 1 of 14
Publishing the results
During completion of the task, Diana will add end point data, reports and references to operational systems used
to capture data, facilitating delivery of results which can be seen from the service queue by Dana. If she is
satisfied with the quality of the data she will publish the tasks and results which can be retrieved by the project
lead from the original request.
Follow up
A request can be used in one of two ways:
• as a working list, adding and removing items and services as required
• as a discrete request for service with a finite life time
Requests can be modified at any time, adding and removing request items and/or services.
Work flow
Pre-requisites
Before using the request-fulfilment work flow the service provider must create a queue as part of the assay
definition. For example the assay development lab manager may offer an assay development service queue
accepting requests for assays to be created for a given set of targets.
Request fulfilment work flow solution
Copyright The Edge ©2009 Page 1 of 14
The request fulfilment work flow can be used without the execution module as the scheduling of an experiment
to fulfil the request is optional. The scientists can manually complete the request items and place results and
documentation in the request folder. This provides a general purpose request management system.
Request fulfilment work flow solution
Copyright The Edge ©2009 Page 1 of 14
Key forms
Requests
Walter will create a request from his home page or from the home page of a discovery project. Walter will add
some basic information about the request, including a comment, requested completion date and priority. He will
then select the services required and the compounds to process. These items are not submitted until he presses
submit.
The requester can add or
remove items and services at
any point. Each request has a
request folder in which to store
files, results and reports.
Request fulfilment work flow solution
Copyright The Edge ©2009 Page 1 of 14
Once the request is submitted the above report can be used to monitor the status of items against the requested
services. This will be updated as the service providers review and process their queues. The project leader can
track the progress of fulfilment and, once published, access the results directly from the 'Results' link
Request-service queue
All the request items are submitted to service queues for each of the requested services. The corresponding
request for the 'Bioavailability' service is shown below. An overview of requests submitted to the service is
provided for the lab manager for Bioavailability. The Lab Manager, Dana can change the status of the whole
request or handle each of the request items independently. She can also forward some or all of the request items
to other members of her team to distribute the work load.
Any changes to the status of the
request items can be tracked in
the original request.
This provides a general way of
tracking requests for work and
processing of request items.
Request fulfilment work flow solution
Copyright The Edge ©2009 Page 1 of 14
Scheduling and planning
In order to fulfil requests from multiple project teams in the most efficient way possible, Dana will schedule
experiments based on assay definitions defining the process and work flow of the service. Dana distributes the
work as a set of tasks which she allocates to team members. She can check the availability of her team in Outlook
and reschedule the work accordingly.
Task overview
The bench scientist Diana Fowler simply logs in and checks her to-do list and calendar. She is a single click away
from the experimental instructions and a place to summarise the results. The request fulfilment work flow
incorporates active request items into her experimental tasks, connecting requests for work with the results of
data capture. For example end-point data such as an IC50 for a compound can be automatically reported back to
the original requester.
Request fulfilment work flow solution
Copyright The Edge ©2009 Page 1 of 14
In this way fulfilment of requests can be automatic, as tasks containing the requested items are completed the
status of all related request items will be updated.
Reporting
The request status report illustrates the status of each request item against each requested service. This is
displayed on the request and the requester's dashboard. There are a number of methods available for making
the 'results' of the request available to the requester.
Request folder
Results and documentation can be
added to the request folder, such as
Excel files, reports or links to data
held in separate systems such as LIMS
and ELN.
Results can be saved to the request
folder in the form of a 'snap-shot'
report.
Request fulfilment work flow solution
Copyright The Edge ©2009 Page 1 of 14
The results can be transferred to MS Excel or other application for analysis. In the example below we have
pivoted the results in MS Excel to identify the selective hits. Integration with more advanced scientific analysis
tools can be achieved either through MS Excel or using the BioRails web services.
The results of analysis can easily be loaded into the BioRails folder system including images, charts and other
embedded objects using BioRails4Office.
Request fulfilment work flow solution
Copyright The Edge ©2009 Page 1 of 14
Publishing tasks
The Lab Manager, Dana will review the data provided by her team and if satisfied with the quality of
their work she will publish the request data by changing the status to ‘published’. Results can now
be accessed directly from the request.
The results can be output to Excel as a CSV file.
Request fulfilment work flow solution
Copyright The Edge ©2009 Page 1 of 14
Summary The request fulfilment work flow solution provides an effective solution for driving and tracking
projects through requests for service and fulfilment with results. The BioRails solution is designed to
scale across large organisations covering many sites across the globe and to handle thousands of
users. This is a unique solution specifically for the pharmaceutical R&D environment, designed to
smooth the transfer of work requests from multiple teams into service groups handling fulfilment
with many types of system from LIMS to ELN. The BioRails Request Fulfilment work flow solution
compliments any R&D environment making the process of Pharmaceutical R&D more transparent
and manageable.
System requirements 100% web: Java script compatible browser
Linux web server (SUSE11, RHES5)
Windows XP or greater, Office 2003 or greater for BioRails4Office
Contact Email: [email protected]
Telephone: +44(0)2380411098 Fax: +44 (0) 8715 210018
Address: The Edge Software Consultancy Ltd, 77 Walnut Tree Close, Guildford, Surrey, GU1
4UH UK