title: Principles and application of LIMS in mouse clinics.
abstract: Large-scale systemic mouse phenotyping, as performed by mouse clinics for more than a decade, requires thousands of mice from a multitude of different mutant lines to be bred, individually tracked and subjected to phenotyping procedures according to a standardised schedule. All these efforts are typically organised in overlapping projects, running in parallel. In terms of logistics, data capture, data analysis, result visualisation and reporting, new challenges have emerged from such projects. These challenges could hardly be met with traditional methods such as pen & paper colony management, spreadsheet-based data management and manual data analysis. Hence, different Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS) have been developed in mouse clinics to facilitate or even enable mouse and data management in the described order of magnitude. This review shows that general principles of LIMS can be empirically deduced from LIMS used by different mouse clinics, although these have evolved differently. Supported by LIMS descriptions and lessons learned from seven mouse clinics, this review also shows that the unique LIMS environment in a particular facility strongly influences strategic LIMS decisions and LIMS development. As a major conclusion, this review states that there is no universal LIMS for the mouse research domain that fits all requirements. Still, empirically deduced general LIMS principles can serve as a master decision support template, which is provided as a hands-on tool for mouse research facilities looking for a LIMS.
authors.affiliation: German Mouse Clinic, Institute of Experimental Genetics, Helmholtz Zentrum München - German Research Center for Environmental Health (GmbH), Ingolstädter Landstr. 1, 85764, Neuherberg, Germany. holger.maier@helmholtz-muenchen.de.
authors.forename: Holger
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Maier
authors.affiliation: German Mouse Clinic, Institute of Experimental Genetics, Helmholtz Zentrum München - German Research Center for Environmental Health (GmbH), Ingolstädter Landstr. 1, 85764, Neuherberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schütt
authors.affiliation: German Mouse Clinic, Institute of Experimental Genetics, Helmholtz Zentrum München - German Research Center for Environmental Health (GmbH), Ingolstädter Landstr. 1, 85764, Neuherberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Ralph
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Steinkamp
authors.affiliation: German Mouse Clinic, Institute of Experimental Genetics, Helmholtz Zentrum München - German Research Center for Environmental Health (GmbH), Ingolstädter Landstr. 1, 85764, Neuherberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Anja
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hurt
authors.affiliation: German Mouse Clinic, Institute of Experimental Genetics, Helmholtz Zentrum München - German Research Center for Environmental Health (GmbH), Ingolstädter Landstr. 1, 85764, Neuherberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Elida
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Schneltzer
authors.affiliation: German Mouse Clinic, Institute of Experimental Genetics, Helmholtz Zentrum München - German Research Center for Environmental Health (GmbH), Ingolstädter Landstr. 1, 85764, Neuherberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Philipp
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gormanns
authors.affiliation: German Mouse Clinic, Institute of Experimental Genetics, Helmholtz Zentrum München - German Research Center for Environmental Health (GmbH), Ingolstädter Landstr. 1, 85764, Neuherberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lengger
authors.affiliation: Mouse Informatics Group, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB10 1SA, UK.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Griffiths
authors.affiliation: Mouse Informatics Group, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB10 1SA, UK.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Melvin
authors.affiliation: Mouse Informatics Group, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB10 1SA, UK.
authors.forename: Neha
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Agrawal
authors.affiliation: Mouse Informatics Group, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB10 1SA, UK.
authors.forename: Rafael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Alcantara
authors.affiliation: Mouse Informatics Group, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB10 1SA, UK.
authors.forename: Arthur
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Evans
authors.affiliation: Mouse Informatics Group, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB10 1SA, UK.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gannon
authors.affiliation: Mouse Informatics Group, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB10 1SA, UK.
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Holroyd
authors.affiliation: Mouse Informatics Group, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB10 1SA, UK.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kipp
authors.affiliation: Mouse Informatics Group, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB10 1SA, UK.
authors.forename: Navis Pretheeba
authors.initials: NP
authors.lastname: Raj
authors.affiliation: Mouse Informatics Group, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB10 1SA, UK.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Richardson
authors.affiliation: Institut Clinique de la Souris - ICS, 1 rue Laurent Fries, BP 10142, 67404, Illkirch Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Sophie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: LeBlanc
authors.affiliation: Institut Clinique de la Souris - ICS, 1 rue Laurent Fries, BP 10142, 67404, Illkirch Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Laurent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Vasseur
authors.affiliation: RIKEN BioResource Center, Kouyadai 3-1-1, Ibaraki, 306-0074, Japan.
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Masuya
authors.affiliation: RIKEN BioResource Center, Kouyadai 3-1-1, Ibaraki, 306-0074, Japan.
authors.forename: Kimio
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
authors.affiliation: RIKEN BioResource Center, Kouyadai 3-1-1, Ibaraki, 306-0074, Japan.
authors.forename: Tomohiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.affiliation: RIKEN BioResource Center, Kouyadai 3-1-1, Ibaraki, 306-0074, Japan.
authors.forename: Nobuhiko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.affiliation: RIKEN BioResource Center, Kouyadai 3-1-1, Ibaraki, 306-0074, Japan.
authors.forename: Shigeharu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wakana
authors.affiliation: Mary Lyon Centre, Medical Research Council Harwell, Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Harwell, Oxfordshire, OX11 0RD, UK.
authors.forename: Alison
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Walling
authors.affiliation: Mouse Biology Program, University of California, Davis, 2795 2nd Street, Suite 400, Davis, CA, 95618, USA.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Clary
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX, 77030, USA.
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gallegos
authors.affiliation: German Mouse Clinic, Institute of Experimental Genetics, Helmholtz Zentrum München - German Research Center for Environmental Health (GmbH), Ingolstädter Landstr. 1, 85764, Neuherberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Helmut
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fuchs
authors.affiliation: German Mouse Clinic, Institute of Experimental Genetics, Helmholtz Zentrum München - German Research Center for Environmental Health (GmbH), Ingolstädter Landstr. 1, 85764, Neuherberg, Germany. hrabe@helmholtz-muenchen.de.|Chair for Experimental Genetics, Life and Food Science Center Weihenstephan, Technische Universität Munich, Freising-Weihenstephan, 85354, Munich, Germany. hrabe@helmholtz-muenchen.de.|Member of German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD e.V.), Neuherberg, Germany. hrabe@helmholtz-muenchen.de.
authors.forename: Martin Hrabě
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: de Angelis
authors.affiliation: German Mouse Clinic, Institute of Experimental Genetics, Helmholtz Zentrum München - German Research Center for Environmental Health (GmbH), Ingolstädter Landstr. 1, 85764, Neuherberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Valerie
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Gailus-Durner
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D035843:Biomedical Research; D002984:Clinical Laboratory Information Systems; D051379:Mice; D012984:Software