Markus Schosserer Group
Medical University of Vienna (Medizinische Universität Wien)
What were the main reasons you chose SciNote premium?
We tested both the free and the paid/premium options. I already expected the premium version to be better, but I didn’t expect it to be that much better…in the end, SciNote really convinced us to spend a little bit of money to combine all the features we want – such as inventory management, the projects/experiments/tasks hierarchy structure, and a very nice workflow – in an ELN.
Can you tell us about you, and your lab’s research focus?
My research interest started originally in food sciences and biotechnology at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) in Vienna. However, I did my M.Sc. and Ph.D. theses in the lab of Johannes Grillari, who had always been interested in aging research, especially in the context of cellular senescence (loss of a cell’s power of division and growth). From there, my focus shifted to aging research in biotech and cell biology. When I became an independent PI in 2019, I stayed in this area of research. In 2022, I moved my lab from BOKU to the Medical University of Vienna, which is where I am now.
In my research lab, we are interested in aging in general, and also more specifically in cellular senescence. Senescent cells are cells that accumulate in our body when we age; these cells won’t divide anymore. They are undesirable because they secrete different inflammatory cytokines in various models and extracellular matrices, potentially leading to diseases such as atherosclerosis, cataract in the eyes, and many other aging-associated illnesses. My lab is specifically interested in protein synthesis. For example, how does the protein synthesis machinery changes during aging, especially when it comes to senescent cells and the modifications of RNA. If we can understand this better, in the future we could use this information to identify biomarkers for aging, and possibly target them for therapeutics.
My lab is specifically focusing on protein synthesis [of senescent cells]…If we can understand this better, in the future we could use this information to identify biomarkers for aging, and possibly target them for therapeutics.
How did you decide to start using an ELN in your lab?
I was supervising students; some of them were interns, staying only for a short time in the lab (3-6 months). With all the paper notebooks, it was almost impossible to find data again after a few years. Therefore, I had always wanted to have something that’s searchable. This was one of the reasons.
The other reason is that we have different types of research data distributed on too many means, channels, and platforms. For example, we have paper notebooks. Then, we have our inventories in Excel spreadsheets, some in Quartzy, and some in other ordering systems, plus a dedicated inventory just for the storage of liquid nitrogen. Finally, we have all the protocols in our wiki page system. We had too many different platforms, but nothing integrated. This is the second reason why I wanted something that can integrate all the different things into one main platform for documenting various types of data.
With all the paper notebooks, it was almost impossible to find data again after a few years.
We had too many different platforms, but nothing integrated. This is the [another] reason why I wanted something that can integrate all the different things into one main platform for documenting various types of data.
What was your process of selecting an ELN? What were the main reasons you chose SciNote?
When I moved from one university to the next, I brought some group members with me. I immediately wanted to have an ELN when I started my new lab. What I did a little bit of research online to learn what solutions are available, and looked at different resources and videos. I figured out a few things that I would like to test without this ELN evaluation becoming a major project. In the end, we decided to test 4 different electronic lab notebook solutions, one of which was SciNote – because it was usually one of the best in all the reviews we saw. After our tests, we decided on SciNote.
We tested both the free and the paid/premium options. I already expected the premium version to be better, but I didn’t expect it to be that much better. At the first, we wanted to settle for the free solution, but in the end, SciNote really convinced us to spend a little bit of money to combine all the features we want – such as inventory management, the projects/experiments/tasks hierarchy structure, and a very nice workflow – in an ELN. I am a very visual person, so I really appreciate the flow-chart style workflow that you can prepare in SciNote. These are SciNote features I really like, that I don’t see when compared to other ELN solutions.
In the end, SciNote really convinced us to spend a little bit of money to combine all the features we want – such as inventory management, the projects/experiments/tasks hierarchy structure, and a very nice workflow – in an ELN.
What was the process of implementing SciNote in your lab?
The group was fairly small (with two colleagues) at first, so we started with 3 licenses. All of us watched the online tutorials, which are really good. And then we just played around with SciNote a bit more, and decided what the best and most efficient way to set up SciNote would be. SciNote is very flexible, so there are many ways to achieve what we would like to achieve (especially its inventory management system). In the end, we settled on a structure, and just stayed with it.
We were also contacted by our SciNote Customer Success Manager (CSM) regularly to see how we were doing. At first, we didn’t have any questions, but slowly as we learned more, we had some questions and also provided some suggestions. These suggestions were later implemented, so it was very nice to see the suggestions taken seriously.
For our inventories, it was straightforward to export the Excel file from Quartzy, which we used, and then import the Excel file into SciNote. What was less straightforward was to get our protocols from our wiki pages over into SciNote. My technician and I did a bit of copying and pasting to get the protocols in, because we couldn’t just import all the steps into the SciNote structure at once. However, it was definitely worth it, as we now have the step-by-step interactive protocols in SciNote.
The process was pretty straightforward, and very smooth.
What benefits did you see after you started using SciNote?
We just started using this 6-months ago, so I can’t tell you what it will be like in 3 years just yet. But so far, it has helped a lot. What I didn’t think about when I started to use SciNote, but am now discovering, is that it works very well for collaboration and working together as a team. I can set up SciNote to have an open structure, so that all my lab members see all the projects. We also use SciNote directly in our lab meetings to review data together and assign responsibilities. This was not possible with paper notebooks before – and it really changes how we work together in the lab.
We also use SciNote directly in our lab meetings to review data together and assign responsibilities. This was not possible with paper notebooks before – and it really changes how we work together in the lab.
What has your experience with the SciNote team been?
We have been in regular contact with our customer success manager (CSM). Every few months, we get an email asking us how things are going. We feel a bit embarrassed about this, because we actually don’t have many questions and don’t interact with our CSM much – most of the features in SciNote are quite intuitive. Once, during a lab meeting, we collected a few ideas and passed them on to the CSM. She gave us really good feedback on our ideas, and those ideas were forwarded to the product/development team, who will hopefully implement some of those suggestions in the future.
In some cases, my lab members and I were talking about some issues in SciNote, but a few days later improvements were already implemented; we didn’t even get the chance to tell our CSM about it. It seems that SciNote is addressing similar challenges encountered by labs, so things are always being improved.
It seems that SciNote is addressing similar challenges encountered by labs, so things are always being improved.
Do you have any tips for others in academic research who are considering SciNote?
Going from paper to SciNote, what worked for me was to export everything in Excel and import it into SciNote. What’s important is that before importing things into SciNote, you need to think about the best structure, especially for the inventories. For example, which columns do I need, and which columns can I remove. This makes importing the data into the inventory columns in SciNote go much more smoothly, and much easier.
Also, think about what you want to achieve and what’s the best structure to set up. Take advantage of the projects/experiments/tasks structure – consider what would be a project, an experiment, or a task, so you can match what you do in the lab with the structure. For example, in my lab, when it comes to passaging of cell cultures, I have each cell set up as an experiment in SciNote, and each passage is a task. Take some time to play around and test SciNote, and base on that experience, think about the structure. Also talk to others in the lab who will actually be using SciNote to see what would work the best. This can prevent having to change the structure later on.
…think about what you want to achieve and what’s the best structure to set up. Take advantage of the projects/experiments/tasks structure – consider what would be a project, an experiment, or a task – so you can match what you do in the lab with the structure.
An example of how Markus organized the passage of cell cultures in SciNote)
Markus Schosserer was invited to share the company’s experience using SciNote due to the use case and familiarity with the product; the company received additional SciNote features for their participation.
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