MyVivarium: A cloud-based lab animal colony management application with realtime ambient sensing
Management of research-animal colonies is vital for lab productivity in preclinical research. Labs often rely on inefficient paper-based or spreadsheet-based methods to manage animal colonies. Dedicated software-based solutions are generally expensive and many lack remote access. Currently available...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal |
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| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2001037025000261 |
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| author | Robinson Vidva Mir Abbas Raza Jaswant Prabhakaran Ayesha Sheikh Alaina Sharp Hayden Ott Amelia Moore Christopher Fleisher Hailey Netherton Evan Goldstein Pothitos M. Pitychoutis Tam V. Nguyen Aaron Sathyanesan |
| author_facet | Robinson Vidva Mir Abbas Raza Jaswant Prabhakaran Ayesha Sheikh Alaina Sharp Hayden Ott Amelia Moore Christopher Fleisher Hailey Netherton Evan Goldstein Pothitos M. Pitychoutis Tam V. Nguyen Aaron Sathyanesan |
| author_sort | Robinson Vidva |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Management of research-animal colonies is vital for lab productivity in preclinical research. Labs often rely on inefficient paper-based or spreadsheet-based methods to manage animal colonies. Dedicated software-based solutions are generally expensive and many lack remote access. Currently available open-source alternatives are difficult to implement and deploy. These solutions also do not have the capability to track ambient variables that affect colony well-being. We built MyVivarium, an open-source database management web application to address these gaps. MyVivarium can be easily deployed to the cloud and sustained for a cost comparable to starting and maintaining a lab website. Using MyVivarium, lab members can collaboratively track individual animals within a database. Physical identities of cages map onto the database using QR codes, enabling quick and easy record-keeping on mobile devices. Lab administrators can assign tasks to users with reminders for experiments or cage maintenance. Finally, we designed a low-cost system to sense ambient humidity, temperature, vivarium worker activity, and room illuminance. These data are then sent to MyVivarium in realtime providing information relevant to colony well-being. Taken together, MyVivarium is a novel, open-source, cloud-based application template that provides a low-cost, simple, and efficient way to digitally manage research-animal colonies. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-ba0069101adf4b278777a2a0b6f0d544 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2001-0370 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal |
| spelling | doaj-art-ba0069101adf4b278777a2a0b6f0d5442025-02-09T05:00:01ZengElsevierComputational and Structural Biotechnology Journal2001-03702025-01-0127612623MyVivarium: A cloud-based lab animal colony management application with realtime ambient sensingRobinson Vidva0Mir Abbas Raza1Jaswant Prabhakaran2Ayesha Sheikh3Alaina Sharp4Hayden Ott5Amelia Moore6Christopher Fleisher7Hailey Netherton8Evan Goldstein9Pothitos M. Pitychoutis10Tam V. Nguyen11Aaron Sathyanesan12Digirobi Solutions, Bengaluru, Karnataka, IndiaDepartment of Biology, College of Arts & Sciences, University of Dayton, Dayton, OH, USADepartment of Computer Science, College of Arts & Sciences, University of Dayton, Dayton, OH, USADepartment of Biology, College of Arts & Sciences, University of Dayton, Dayton, OH, USADepartment of Biology, College of Arts & Sciences, University of Dayton, Dayton, OH, USADepartment of Biology, College of Arts & Sciences, University of Dayton, Dayton, OH, USADepartment of Biology, College of Arts & Sciences, University of Dayton, Dayton, OH, USADepartment of Biology, College of Arts & Sciences, University of Dayton, Dayton, OH, USADepartment of Biological Sciences, College of Science & Mathematics, Augusta University, Augusta, GA, USA; Department of Neuroscience & Regenerative Medicine, Augusta University, Augusta, GA, USADepartment of Biological Sciences, College of Science & Mathematics, Augusta University, Augusta, GA, USA; Department of Neuroscience & Regenerative Medicine, Augusta University, Augusta, GA, USADepartment of Biology, College of Arts & Sciences, University of Dayton, Dayton, OH, USADepartment of Computer Science, College of Arts & Sciences, University of Dayton, Dayton, OH, USADepartment of Biology, College of Arts & Sciences, University of Dayton, Dayton, OH, USA; Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, School of Engineering, University of Dayton, Dayton, OH, USA; Correspondence to: 300 College Park, Dayton, OH, USA.Management of research-animal colonies is vital for lab productivity in preclinical research. Labs often rely on inefficient paper-based or spreadsheet-based methods to manage animal colonies. Dedicated software-based solutions are generally expensive and many lack remote access. Currently available open-source alternatives are difficult to implement and deploy. These solutions also do not have the capability to track ambient variables that affect colony well-being. We built MyVivarium, an open-source database management web application to address these gaps. MyVivarium can be easily deployed to the cloud and sustained for a cost comparable to starting and maintaining a lab website. Using MyVivarium, lab members can collaboratively track individual animals within a database. Physical identities of cages map onto the database using QR codes, enabling quick and easy record-keeping on mobile devices. Lab administrators can assign tasks to users with reminders for experiments or cage maintenance. Finally, we designed a low-cost system to sense ambient humidity, temperature, vivarium worker activity, and room illuminance. These data are then sent to MyVivarium in realtime providing information relevant to colony well-being. Taken together, MyVivarium is a novel, open-source, cloud-based application template that provides a low-cost, simple, and efficient way to digitally manage research-animal colonies.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2001037025000261Mouse facilityOpen-source technologyIoT sensorsBiological database |
| spellingShingle | Robinson Vidva Mir Abbas Raza Jaswant Prabhakaran Ayesha Sheikh Alaina Sharp Hayden Ott Amelia Moore Christopher Fleisher Hailey Netherton Evan Goldstein Pothitos M. Pitychoutis Tam V. Nguyen Aaron Sathyanesan MyVivarium: A cloud-based lab animal colony management application with realtime ambient sensing Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal Mouse facility Open-source technology IoT sensors Biological database |
| title | MyVivarium: A cloud-based lab animal colony management application with realtime ambient sensing |
| title_full | MyVivarium: A cloud-based lab animal colony management application with realtime ambient sensing |
| title_fullStr | MyVivarium: A cloud-based lab animal colony management application with realtime ambient sensing |
| title_full_unstemmed | MyVivarium: A cloud-based lab animal colony management application with realtime ambient sensing |
| title_short | MyVivarium: A cloud-based lab animal colony management application with realtime ambient sensing |
| title_sort | myvivarium a cloud based lab animal colony management application with realtime ambient sensing |
| topic | Mouse facility Open-source technology IoT sensors Biological database |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2001037025000261 |
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