LabKey Server v8.3 Now Available
SEATTLE, Washington – December 2, 2008 – LabKey Software, a leading provider of open source software that enables teams of researchers to pursue large-scale, collaborative projects, announced the release of LabKey Server v8.3. The new version makes substantial improvements across all areas of the platform, making it more capable and more customizable for lab researchers, administrators and developers. New and current users can take advantage of these enhancements by downloading the freely available, open source LabKey Server software from www.labkey.com. Or, as part of a custom deployment and development project, LabKey Software can install, configure and enhance the software for you.
“LabKey Server is designed to support networks of research scientists in labs around the world who collaborate to solve complex biological problems, like developing a vaccine for HIV/AIDS,” says George Snelling, president of LabKey Software. Snelling elaborates, “This latest release incorporates what we’ve learned by listening closely to our major clients doing leading-edge, collaborative projects. Version 8.3 makes LabKey Server more useful and usable for these users. It also gives LabKey Software a substantial head start in its ability to build customized solutions for large-scale, multi-site research collaboration.”
Dr. Steve Self, Executive Director of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center-based Statistical Center for HIV/AIDS Research (SCHARP), and co-director of the Center’s Vaccine and Infectious Disease Institute, adds, “We believe that open collaboration between large networks of HIV/AIDS researchers is key to accelerating the pace at which we make new discoveries in the field of HIV/AIDS vaccine research. The LabKey Software team has worked closely with us to create a Web -based platform that supports our rapidly growing involvement in collaborative projects. The platform enables collaborators to analyze, validate and integrate data sets from labs and clinics around the globe as they are collected. This lets researchers build on each other’s work much more rapidly and effectively.”
Highlights of the release include:
High-throughput, customizable batch processing: Enhancements to the Enterprise Pipeline allow users to send processing-intense analysis jobs to separate servers or to computing clusters. Researchers can also configure custom pipeline tasks and jobs to support their unique analysis needs.
Improved quality control of study data: Assay data definitions can now include range and pattern checks on data elements that are imported into LabKey Server, enforcing better data quality. Study administrators can also define quality control “states” that describe the level of validation of any data item, and automatically filter the data that other users see based on these validation levels.
Flexible options for using and displaying data in LabKey Server: Client API libraries for R and Java join the existing Javascript Client API. These libraries provide easy access to the raw data and tools supplied by LabKey Server. The client API libraries enable researchers to easily customize Web pages and analyses to their needs. New APIs supply user information, security reporting and study dataset editing.
Improved integration with existing Flow Cytometry tools: FlowJo Integration allows users to render graphs from statistics calculated by FlowJo. Added support for ICS metadata makes it easier to distinguish control wells from experimental wells and calculate average background values.
Improved site administration: Stylesheets applied at the site and project levels allow easy customization of page styles and the creation of separate visual identities for projects within a site. Improvements to security management include site-wide groups and improved mechanisms to impersonate or deactivate a user account.
This LabKey Server v8.3 update is immediately available for download from the www.labkey.com Web site at no cost. The open source project, platform documentation, and support forums are found on www.labkey.org. LabKey Server clients with current support or development contracts can contact LabKey Software directly to schedule a managed installation of the update.
About LabKey Server
LabKey Server is an open source, Web-based system that enables teams of researchers to pursue large-scale, collaborative projects in their quest to produce definitive answers to complex scientific questions. In full production use today at leading biomedical research organizations, LabKey Server helps networks of independent teams come together to accelerate their joint research efforts by providing the software infrastructure needed to integrate, manage, analyze, validate and securely share both experimental data and clinical data. LabKey Server is a standards-based, extensible and modular platform that handles assay-based data like those generated by ELISpot, ELISA, Luminex and neutralizing antibody experiments, as well as high-throughput data such as that produced by mass spectrometry and flow cytometry instruments. The current production release of LabKey Server is version 8.3. This version is available for download at www.labkey.com.
LabKey Software – Partners in ScienceT
LabKey Software, headquartered in Seattle, Washington, is a leading provider of open-source scientific data management systems and consulting services for large-scale, collaborative projects. Its clients include some of the world’s top biomedical research organizations, including the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, the Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology (CHAVI) at Duke University, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funded Collaboration for AIDS Vaccine Discovery (CAVD) and the Statistical Center for HIV/AIDS Research and Prevention (SCHARP), based at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. LabKey Software has developed and commercialized LabKey Server, the preeminent open source software platform for enabling teams of researchers to purse large-scale, collaborative projects. LabKey Software provides enterprise-level support, training and consulting services to adopters of the LabKey Server platform and continues to take a leadership role in enhancing and guiding the evolution of the system. For complete details about LabKey Software, visit www.labkey.com.
