Our Client in this project was a combinatorial chemistry lab in life sciences discovery research. Chemists needed a software tool to help them plan automated compound library syntheses. While there were commercial software packages with this general functionality, our Client had specific requirements that went beyond what was on offer.
Collaborative research is the norm in the industry.
Specifically, our Client requested that the combinatorial chemistry planner software supported collaborative design by multiple contributors in multiple simultaneous projects each involving multiple design steps such as reaction definition, reagent selection, etc. Another key requirement was direct access to the company reagent and reaction inventories. The Client also had stated their preferred technology stack which was familiar to their internal IT support team.
Collaboratively with the Client's research IT team and the combinatorial chemistry team, we designed and implemented a secure web application with the requested functionalities. Chemists can create and collaborate on virtual projects, view, import and edit reactions and reagent lists, calculate chemical properties of reactants as well as products, and have their exploratory virtual experiments recorded by the software for colleagues to review.
A key factor to successful delivery in this project was iterative design with the chemists and research IT. We held regular review meetings with the Client's team throughout the project. Research IT was one of the stakeholders and made critically important contributions to the design and implementation effort.
