Data Management and Archive

Staying on the cutting edge in our connected world, the Cytobank platform’s cloud-based capabilities allow scientists from around the globe to collaborate and dive deeper into large and complex data sets.The Cytobank platform offers a way to manage, analyze, and share your flow and mass cytometry data on the web. This is a key need in today’s multi-site and multi-disciplinary collaborations where different groups of users require different levels of access to the data.

Keeping Data Organized

A common hurdle during flow analysis is keeping track of experiment details such as doses, compounds, timepoints, and other experimental variables. Cytobank's analysis system is designed to allow users to pivot, filter and organize their figures using Sample Tags. The more details that are provided, the more flexibility the user has in figure organization and pivoting. Users can now focus on questions such as which populations respond to an increase in dose or which samples have a low T cell count instead of trying to remember which FCS file the 1 ng/ml dose corresponds to. Each experiment can also contain attachments (such as Adobe PDF and PowerPoint documents and Excel spreadsheets). Users have an email-like interface (the Experiment Manager) to organize and search their experiments. In addition, algorithm settings for machine learning assisted analysis are stored automatically, an important feature supporting experimental reproducibility. 
The Experiment Summary page is an integration point for information about your Experiment. It contains details and information about the Experiment such as:

  • The purpose, comments, and project membership

  • Saved figures (illustrations)

  • Uploaded and exported attachments

  • Protocols

  • A list of the FCS files in the experiment and relevant metadata

 

Related experiments are now grouped together, and their relationships visualized in a “family tree.” You can now share and rename experiments directly from the Experiment Manager, customize which columns to display, hide or ‘favorite’ filters, and quickly see what your collaborators and group members have been up to (where you’ve been granted permission) using the new Primary Researcher filters.

Uploading data to the cloud also provides a convenient way to manage files in research groups – PIs or group managers can avoid having to chase down FCS files and analyses on members’ laptops, especially when those members transition to new positions.

Another advantage to storing copies of your data on Cytobank is that our database is regularly backed up. If your computer (containing your FCS files and analyses) suddenly fails, those files and analyses are easily accessible on Cytobank and can be recovered.

 

Sharing and Controlling Access

Sharing an experiment with another user on Cytobank (who can be located anywhere in the world) makes visible any of the important details you want to share. With data and analyses in the cloud, there is no longer a time or space limitation to what you can share with colleagues. All they need to do is access the cloud and look for the details they need, whether it is the raw data, the final images, or something in between.

On the Cytobank platform, Experiments can be grouped into Projects for organizational purposes, as well as for sharing access to Experiments among a group of people. This is a key need in today’s multi-site and multi-disciplinary collaborations where different groups of users require different levels of access to the data.

  • Use project roles to organize people within the project
  • Control what members can do with data
  • Add and remove experiments from projects

Collaborate Globally

Communicating results is not useful if appropriate experiment details are not provided along with an experiment. On the Cytobank platform, datasets are fully annotated with critical experimental details during the course of analysis and are a few clicks away from sharing these details with collaborators around the globe.

Users can also share their experiments with other users on Cytobank. The ability to do this from any computer with a web browser and Internet connection has many benefits that include centralized and backed-up storage for your cytometry data and eliminating the need to clog up your Email inbox with FCS files. Furthermore, the experiments are searchable and sortable, and sharing can be managed per experiment or via collections of experiments (projects).

Colleagues can start with experiment results, drill down to the underlying raw data and facilitate sharing and discussion with labmates, colleagues, and others in the scientific community. Users can analyze their flow cytometry data and visualize results using standard flow cytometry plots, via aggregate visualizations such as heatmaps and histogram overlays, and also via advanced visualization and dimensionality reduction algorithms such as SPADE, FlowSOM, viSNE, and CITRUS.

 

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