HTS Dashboard: a unified web-based

toolset to streamline HTS informatics

Pierre Baillargeon1, Mark Southern2, Timothy P. Spicer1, and Louis Scampavia1

1Lead Identification Division, Translational Research Institute,

The Scripps Research Molecular Screening Center, Jupiter, FL 334582Present address: Amgen, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320

Acknowledgments

We wish to thank Dr. Peter Hodder2 and Dr.

Franck Madoux2 for their feedback in

developing the HTS Dashboard.

HTS Dashboard: Sample WorkflowOverviewManaging the wide variety of sources and formats of data

found in a modern High Throughput Screening lab is an

ongoing challenge. As a result, data management software

is constantly evolving to accommodate the sheer volume of

data and the complexity of information generated.

Commercial data management solutions exist to meet some

of these challenges, but they are often expensive and

inflexible, performing only a handful of the many tasks

needed to manage HTS data tasks effectively and

efficiently. Alternatively, developing a custom in-house

informatics solution allows software to be tailored to the

exact needs of the end user. To address these issues, we

have developed a custom web-based interface known as

the HTS Dashboard.

The HTS Dashboard has been architected to be sufficiently

extensible to meet future needs, enables rapid development

by utilizing the latest open source web technologies and

allow users of diverse backgrounds to easily generate

sophisticated data sets. The HTS Dashboard interfaces with

a number of data sources including HTS readers, corporate

LIMS records for compound and plate records, compound

management automation, and QC instrumentation such as

LC-MS and the Plate Auditor. By providing a unified and

user-friendly data interface webpage, utilities can be easily

accessed by biologists, chemists, project managers and

engineers to assist with a broad array of HTS related tasks

including aggregation of data, performing QC checks,

generating visual presentations, and exporting data.

Further, these capabilities work across the entire spectrum

of activities found within a HTS campaign, from pilot screen

through primary, confirmation, counterscreen and dose

response. The infrastructure which has been developed

and deployed within the Lead Identification group at

Scripps Florida and its impact on HTS operations are

presented.

This poster can be viewed online by

scanning the following QR code:

HTS Dashboard retrieves, aggregates,

analyzes and presents data to user with

automated annotations to identify

pass/fail criteria; all in just a few

seconds.

After aggregating HTS data, the HTS

dashboard automatically flags potential

issues and generates alerts for users.

These automatic QC checks include:

• Verifying that a complete dataset

representing the current screening

collection has been loaded into the

corporate assay database

• Verifying assay plates have been

properly registered in the corporate

plate management database

• Verifying the hit cutoffs set in the

corporate assay database match hit

cutoffs calculated based on internal

business rules

User navigates to HTS Software

Utilities web portal and clicks on HTS

Dashboard link

1

2

3

Software ArchitectureThe HTS Dashboard unifies a number of data sources

through a user friendly web-based interface that is based

on open source software frameworks. The frameworks

used and their configuration within the HTS Dashboard is

shown in the layer diagram below.

Prior to the development of HTS Dashboard, users had to

manually curate data using a combination of tools including

Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Access and TIBCO Spotfire. The

goal of the HTS software utilities was to replace these tools

to reduce the possibility of error in manual curation of data

and to reduce the amount of time and energy required to

curate, validate and organize HTS data.

ConclusionIntegration of these software tools has reduced the time by hours, if not days, of time per assay required to perform QC on

HTS data and increased the robustness of processes for aggregating and exporting HTS data. End users no longer have to

manually assemble and then spot check data. This eliminates the chance for errors in reporting HTS data internally and

externally.

Data sources

Application LayerPHP

Presentation LayerHTML, CSS, jQuery, Datatables jQuery

plugin, Dygraphs JavaScript library

Data layerPHP

Lead ID LC-MS, HCS databases

Microsoft SQL

Lead ID Compound

Management, Plate Auditor databases

MySQL

Corporate LIMS, REMP SSS

databasesOracle

Lead ID HTS Dashboard

User enters unique assay identifier (AID)

and specifies the data source.

Users can click on summary statistics

to drill down into programmatically

generated graphs or to perform bulk

exports data of aggregated data.

By directly linking the visualization

tools to the aggregated data source in

an automated fashion, changes to the

assay dataset can be quickly

propagated without the need for

manual, offline data export and merge

steps. Users can also easily adjust the

visualizations as needed for

downstream reporting; i.e. one stop

shopping

4

Additional tools

The homepage for the HTS Dashboard provides

a centralized location where users can quickly

access a number of custom web based tools

which streamline routine HTS informatics

tasks. These tools include the following

functionality:

Querying, aggregation, sorting, filtering and

exporting of LCMS data.

Querying, aggregation of HTS data and

automatic generation HTS promiscuity reports

Querying and exportation of compound

metadata

Querying and exportation of dose response

reports