Harvard Medical School/Brigham and Women’s Hospital Laboratory Selects LabVantage’s SAPPHIRE™ to Phase out Its Legacy LIMS

LabVantage Solutions, Inc. today announced that its SAPPHIRE™ BioBanking Solution has been licensed by the prestigious Channing Laboratory, a multidisciplinary research division of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School. The laboratory is world renowned for its infectious disease and epidemiologic research. As part of a multi-phase laboratory information management project, it will deploy SAPPHIRE in the Respiratory Epidemiology Genotyping Laboratory, replacing significant portions of the existing LIMS and other internally developed software packages.

Historically, the Channing laboratory primarily developed and maintained its own "in-house" solutions for its genotyping research and associated laboratory information management. When defining the scope for the ambitious biorepository and sample tracking system, it sought a proven, standards-driven, yet configurable solution. Through extensive due-diligence and review of the available top-tier commercial solutions, LabVantage’s SAPPHIRE was chosen for its comprehensive and configurable-off-the-shelf (COTS) functionality.

The BioBanking Module of SAPPHIRE afforded out-of-the-box industry best-practices for biorepository management. SAPPHIRE’S zero footprint, thin-client architecture was a decisive factor as it would provide its key staff, technicians, scientists, and principal investigators with the remote and secure access required when interacting with the biorepository. SAPPHIRE was also carefully selected for its ability to map existing laboratory processes to its built-in workflow management capabilities. This would enable The Channing Laboratory to automate its study management, sample collection, accessioning, and storage management practices and ensure compliance with its standard operating procedures. In addition, critically important was SAPPHIRE’S open architecture and ability to integrate with existing internally built systems, as well as, the flexibility to configure the solution to meet their global needs now and into the future.

"We were primarily seeking a solution for our biorepository needs, but quickly found that many of our internally built laboratory systems and process would be tied to the biorepository processes," comments Dr. Scott Weiss, Principal Investigator for the Channing Laboratory. "We needed a solution that would provide state-of-the-art biorepository management and that would also replace our legacy systems with standardized solutions. LabVantage’s SAPPHIRE provides both, enabling us to deploy now and extend the solution in the future."

"The Channing Laboratory’s selection of LabVantage continues to substantiate SAPPHIRE as the product of choice for leading laboratories looking to replace their legacy LIMS and standardize on a best-in-class sample and biorepository management solution," stressed Ron Kasner, Vice President of Corporate Development for LabVantage. "It further demonstrates our leadership in customer service and commitment to excellence."