What if the overnight cleaning crew turned on the lights in the lab, and your lab animals’ circadian rhythms were negatively affected?
Or you arrived at the lab in the morning to learn that a freezer door had been left ajar all night and priceless inventory was destroyed?
Elemental Machines, based in Cambridge, MA, is giving laboratories peace of mind, saving them time and improving the accuracy of their studies with its AI-powered platform. Instruments and processes get 24/7 monitoring and alerts for temperature, light and humidity, while you receive alerts and real-time data stored in the cloud.
LA Biomed, an animal testing facility, was using all paper records for room environmental tracking. This system required manually collecting temperature data on a daily basis. The lab also had no way of knowing if the temperature readings were out of the expected range at any given time.
Its facilities are accredited by numerous organizations who performed regular compliance checks, which involved going room to room to check the light, humidity, and temperature levels. They also had to manually go through the paper charts of data to provide any historical information, which was tedious and time consuming.
Guerra said Elemental Machines gives the lab peace of mind and saves time by providing an easily accessible data record. Additionally, its studies are now more accurate. With constant recording, it is easier to determine if a physiological change in an animal is the result of the environment or the study.
LabCentral, based in Cambridge, MA, is a shared lab facility for early stage life science companies, with a focus on easing operational burdens so that startups can focus on science. With numerous -20°C and -80°C freezers, cold rooms, incubators, and cryogenic freezers, it was monitoring the -80°C freezers with TCA-3 monitoring devices, which were failing over time; the rest of its equipment was not being monitored digitally.
Lyndsey Rissin, Senior Manager, Lab Operations, LabCentral, said that the facility started using Elemental Machines Element-T devices to track all of its cold storage equipment – more than 250 assets. The power of the data has transformed the way LabCentral operates.
We’re able to view data for equipment that wasn't connected before. Now we have real time monitoring of temperature, we have stats on compressor cycles, how frequently a door is being opened, and we can tell if people are leaving the door open from the data”
LabCentral can also be proactive about fixing equipment.
Rissin noted other results:
- Troubleshooting Studies - “For our clients, studies can be very sensitive to a lot of factors. Our data can give more insight to variability you might be experiencing.”
- Smart Lab - LabCentral is monitoring all its devices in one system.
- Data Based Decisions - Reliable, comprehensive data enables LabCentral to make decisions based on the life cycle and usage of their equipment.
- Peace of Mind - Real time alerts notify lab managers to any out of spec conditions so they can take appropriate actions before any inventory is lost.