About
People
Charlie Britten Scientist, ADC Therapeutics
Overall Goal
Increasing efficiency, productivity, and collaboration by migrating from a paper workflow to an electronic lab notebook.
Approach
Investing in a cloud-based lab management solution from Labguru.
Results
- Estimated gain of one additional day of productivity per week, per analyst, by increasing throughput of sample analysis and completed experiments.
- Linked and integrated data facilitates finding the right protocol, asset or entity, streamlining lab work and helping troubleshoot problems more quickly.
- Comprehensive and integrated knowledge management enables the lab team to make decisions faster and meet key milestones more quickly.
Charlie Britten
Scientist, ADC Therapeutics
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ADC Therapeutics is is dedicated to the development of Antibody Drug Conjugates (ADCs) for the treatment of both solid and hematological cancers.
We interviewed Charlie Britten, a scientist at ADC Therapeutics, and asked him about his team's experience with Labguru as a cloud-based lab management solution.
Introduction
ADC Therapeutics is a clinical-stage oncology drug discovery and development company focused on advancing antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) for the treatment of hematological cancers and solid tumors. The company's ADCs are highly targeted biopharmaceutical drugs that combine monoclonal antibodies specific to surface antigens present on particular tumor cells with a novel class of highly potent pyrrolobenzodiazepine (PBD)-based warheads via a chemical linker to selectively kill cancer cells. The selective targeting and unique mechanism of action possess the potential for enhanced efficacy. ADC Therapeutics was founded in 2012, and has since raised $455 million to advance its pipeline of programs. It is based in Lausanne, Switzerland and has operations in London (R&D), New Jersey (clinical) and San Francisco (CMC).
The team at ADCT has a deep understanding of ADCs and the oncology treatment landscape. It is dedicated to efficiently progressing its potentially best-in-class PBD-armed ADCs to address significant unmet medical needs and improve outcomes for people with cancer. The lab was set up in 2012 and Labguru was implemented from the start. Reagents and other consumables are managed in Labguru, but the main application is the electronic lab notebook (ELN). Charlie Britten is a scientist responsible for method development work at ADC Therapeutics.
The number of samples that can be analyzed has vastly increased, as the lab team can record the experiments and results in less than one hour. I estimate that we can save a day per week by using the ELN rather than having to search, scan, print and compile everything together in a printed lab notebook.
Summarizing the challenge
When ADCT was first founded, the team used paper lab notebooks. But the sheer amount of data being produced quickly rendered the paper notebooks inadequate. Since Charlie's team works closely with colleagues located in various locations around the world and visits different sites, Charlie soon found viewing data from various locations and collaborating remotely to be extremely challenging.
ADCT scientists realized they needed to find an ELN solution. They researched several options, but found most of them to be severely limited. They were either locally hosted, or the timescale to set them up was too long, or they had limited functionality. Labguru was the only solution that provided both the flexibility and control to meet their needs.
Access across many sites
Critically, Labguru also provided a cloud-based lab management system to serve different people working in different locations. This was an essential selling point for Charlie and his colleagues, who needed to view their data from different locations. Charlie finds that the data in Labguru is very structured and organized to enable a better overview. He also enjoys the ability to create a PDF report of an experiment or method and send it immediately to a colleague who does not have Labguru.
Linked information generates key insights
A key utility for ADC was the integrated and linked information in Labguru. Charlie reports that Labguru allows users to link everything together and integrate all information and assets in one system. ADCT team members order reagents and link them into experiments, recipes and protocols. This would be very difficult to achieve in a locally loaded system, as these systems are made up of separate, independently working parts - one for managing stocks, one for recording data, etc. With Labguru, ADCT researchers can see where an entity, such as an antibody, was used across a list of experiments. This makes it easier to find data, troubleshoot issues and establish the suitability of entities for different experimental tasks. The ease and speed with which information can be found is a key feature for the ADCT team.
Labguru was the only solution which gave us both the flexibility and control to meet our needs.
A seamless flow of raw research data
ADCT utilizes several lab techniques, such as flow cytometry, which generate a great deal of data files. This is why the ADCT team needs to be able to retain and integrate the raw data in documented experiments. Charlie identifies the difficulty associated with printing 200 or 300 pages of the raw data as a serious pain point when trying to document flow cytometry experiments with paper-based lab notebooks. Fortunately, the Labguru ELN collects the raw data directly alongside the experimental summary and the graphs visualizing the results. Charlie also needs the raw data to be easily accessible, in the right context, to anyone in the lab, so that conclusions that can be independently checked and verified. This, he is happy to report, can be easily achieved in Labguru.
ROI from Labguru
According to Charlie, using Labguru initially saved ADCT one day of lab work a week per analyst. This can be explained by the dramatic reduction in time spent writing up experiments in paper notebooks. After using Labguru for around 4 years, Charlie is thrilled that Labguru is saving his team even more time because his colleagues now attach data via a drag and drop option, saving the hours they would have wasted scanning, printing, and compiling everything together in a paper lab notebook. ADCT scientists have tablets for recording information in the lab, which means information can be added in real time - saving time and eliminating errors. Charlie also emphasizes that a higher throughput of sample analysis and completed experiments empowers his team to make decisions faster, accelerating the achievement of milestones to reach the company's scientific and commercial goals.