The CombeChem project: From smart labs to smart papers

Abstract

In this paper we will discuss the CombeChem Project’s (www.comebchem.org) “end-to-end” management of laboratory chemical information from its creation in the laboratory, digital capture of information from equipment and people in a laboratory context, the analysis of the information and its dissemination. Throughout these processes we show how maintaining the links to the original data provides the necessary provenance and how this process is mediated by appropriate middleware. The examples will show how the project has made use of grid-enabled equipment, pub-sub systems for laboratory monitoring, and repositories to underpin both data management and dissemination. All the components are integrated together using semantic web technologies with the recent use of the Blog & Web 2.0 metaphors being particularly appealing to the student community.