Project Information

Project:	PIMS
Internal Release Number:	0.1
Related Documents:	Project proposal > User needs Glossary

Process impact: This document helps identify potential customers and their defining aspects. That helps to suggest and give weight to requirements. The list of benefits gives the sales team information on how to sell the product, and highlights important use cases and test cases.

Target Audience

What market segment is this product in?

Laboratory Information Management Systems

What is the target market for this product? Include specific defining characteristics.

Laboratories that produce proteins from target genes.

What is the size of the total available market? Cite references for facts.

Across the globe there is a substantial investment in highthroughput structural biology.

What are some other customer options or leading products that address the same needs?

• Xtrack, MOLE, HALX.
• Do-it-yourself solutions

BBSRC funding provides core support to guarantee that core deliverables are provided to the BBSRC SPoRT cpnsortia, but with additional funding (including MRC and EC) being brought to bear on the overall project to: (i) accelerate the development of core functionality and (ii) provide additional functionality of broad interest.

The aim is to provide, after two years, an LGPL licenced system which will be freely distributed and which can be incorporated into the commercial software of equipment and reagent manufacturors in the area of biotech and protein production. If the work is successful then there is likely to be pressure from other groups to expand the partnership. The present PIMS management model provides a mechanism whereby this can happen without putting the delivery of an approporiate version of PIMS to the SPoRT consortia at risk.

It is important that all molecular biology laboratories are aware of the LIMS developments in this proposal. The system is not designed to be restricted to high throughput techniques as sample tracking and data management is an issue that will affect all laboratories. Web pages will be used extensively to advertise information about the project and the developments also publicised at relevant scientific meetings. PIMS will continuously be made available to the entire UK biology community in incremental releases. A fully functional distribution of the PIMS and associated toolkits with instrument interfaces will be made available to CCP4 who will distribute and provide bulletin board support. Finally discussions with colleagues in other countries suggests that PIMS, if successful, would be of interest well beyond the UK. In short, with the increasing importance of protein research in the post-genome era, and the lack of a coherent academic response to the need for an effective protein LIMS elsewhere in the world there is an unmet need. Thus PIMS, if well designed and executed, would benefit a very significant number of academic scientists.

Benefits to Customers

Benefits to the development organization should be listed in Risks and Rewards.

• The ability to manage a very large number of trials to produce a large number of target proteins.
• Easier collaboration with other facilities e.g. other protein production labs and synchrotrons.
• Data mining to discover patterns in the failed trials.
• An integrated interface incorporating other tools e.g. bioinformatics.
• A framework for interfacing to future laboratory instruments.