Keeping records
Registry
A catalogue of the biological things your lab actually owns, each with a stable identifier — so a construct can be referred to by name a year later without ambiguity.
Why a registry and not just files
Project files answer “what did I design?”. The registry answers “what do we have?”. They are different questions, and the second one outlives any individual project.
The practical value is the identifier. Once a plasmid is registered as PLM-000042, that is what goes on the tube, in the paper, and in the message to the collaborator who wants a sample — instead of pET28a-estA-final-v3-USE-THIS.gb.
What it tracks
| Type | Prefix | Typically |
|---|---|---|
| Plasmid | PLM | Your constructs, once they are real DNA. |
| Strain | STR | Transformed strains and engineered backgrounds. |
| Oligo | OLG | Primers and synthesised oligos you reorder. |
| Protein | PRO | Purified proteins. |
| Antibody | AB | Antibodies, with their target and host. |
| Cell Line | CL | Mammalian and insect lines. |
| Custom | REG | Anything your lab tracks that is none of the above. |
Each entry carries a status: Active, Deprecated or Archived. Deprecated is the useful one — it keeps a superseded construct findable and readable while making clear nobody should build on it.
Using it
Open Registry from the icon rail.
| You want to | Do this |
|---|---|
| Add something | Add Entity, then pick the type and fill in the details. |
| Find something | Search by name or ID. |
| Narrow the list | The type chips filter, and show how many of each you have. Clear filters resets. |
| Act on several at once | Turn on Select mode, tick the ones you want, then archive or delete as a batch. |
| Get the data out | Export All or Export Selected as CSV — for a shared spreadsheet, an order form, or a supplementary table. |
Linking entries to each other
Entries can point at each other, which is where a registry starts paying for itself: a strain links to the plasmid it carries, a plasmid links to the oligos used to build it, a purified protein links to the construct it came from.
When something fails, that chain is what lets you work backwards — the prep that went wrong, the plasmid it came from, the primers that built it.
What works in practice
Register when it exists, not when you design it
A registry full of constructs that were designed and never built is worse than no registry, because the identifiers stop meaning “we have this”. Design in a project; register when there is a tube.
Deprecate rather than delete
A superseded construct still appears in old notebook entries and old papers. Deprecating keeps the record readable while making the status unambiguous. Deleting leaves a dangling reference nobody can resolve.
Keep the physical detail in one place
The registry says what a thing is. Inventory says which freezer it is in. Splitting it that way keeps the registry useful when the same construct is in three boxes.
If the panel asks for setup
A Registry Setup Required message means the underlying tables have not been created for your deployment. It is an administrator task, not something you can resolve from the interface — contact whoever runs your instance, or get in touch if that is us.