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Forum: How do you manage a large number of samples ( storage, analysis,...) ?

Hi,

An open question : How do you manage a large number of samples in term of storage ( fastq, bam, vcf, ... ), of directory structure, DB, ... ? When the number of samples becomes big, it can be though to manage this in a clear and efficent way. Multiple species, multiple people have access to the data, etc...

So for you, what is the best way to manage this?

samples hts

2 answers

I have been using Google Spreadsheet for logging and sharing multi-species, specimen, taxonomic, and various other kinds of data. There are ~10 users involved. See: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Aoac4TcHWbdndER2Tml4S1lBZkNIdkExdEhoU3llU0E#gid=0

For physical specimens/DNA extracts, I standardize the workflow and I manage or closely monitor individual projects (currently more than 4).

...and you don't have to deal with privacy/security issues...

LIMS - Laboratory Information Management System

Our lab has a custom-built LIMS built off a Django stack. It works for us. I think we were doing the Google Spreadsheet thing until it became too unwieldy to do reports. No LIMS will be perfect out of the box, I'd think, since each lab will likely have a particular research focus that requires customization.

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