Institute of Cancer Research - Case Study Part I: Beyond the visual: How Vortex speeds up data processing
Company Size
1,000+
Region
- Europe
Country
- United Kingdom
Product
- Vortex
- Browser
- R
Tech Stack
- Data Visualisation
- Data Analysis
- Python
Implementation Scale
- Departmental Deployment
Impact Metrics
- Digital Expertise
- Productivity Improvements
Technology Category
- Analytics & Modeling - Data Mining
- Analytics & Modeling - Real Time Analytics
Applicable Industries
- Healthcare & Hospitals
- Life Sciences
Applicable Functions
- Product Research & Development
- Quality Assurance
Use Cases
- Predictive Maintenance
Services
- Data Science Services
- Software Design & Engineering Services
About The Customer
The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) is a leading research institution in the United Kingdom. The Cancer Therapeutics Unit at ICR is dedicated to the development of new treatments for cancer. The unit employs a number of scientists who work on various aspects of cancer research, including the analysis of data from Thermal Shift Assays. These assays are used to measure the thermal stability of proteins and are an important tool in the development of new cancer drugs. However, the process of analysing the data from these assays was time-consuming and prone to errors, leading to a need for a more efficient and reliable solution.
The Challenge
Before the deployment of Vortex, scientists at The Cancer Therapeutics Unit used an Excel spreadsheet to copy and paste raw values from Thermal Shift Assay readers output before evaluating the plots to set the minimum/maximum. They would then copy and paste a subset of that data into GraphPad Prism, before copying the results back into the Excel spreadsheet for further analysis. This process was laborious and prone to errors due to manual data entry. The half a day taken to process that data had become a bottleneck for the Unit. The solution was to define and implement a standardised method that would eliminate errors and streamline the workflow.
The Solution
The solution was to deploy Vortex, a data visualisation and analysis solution from Dotmatics. Vortex streamlined the process by handling each step of the previous process within one program, reducing the processing time from half a day to less than an hour. The software also eliminated the need for manual data entry, reducing the risk of errors. In addition to Vortex, ICR also integrated R, an open source statistical program, to further expand the software's functionalities. The Python scripting functionality in Vortex ties together Vortex and R, and built-in features allowed for quick development of the process and ease of distribution of the resulting analysis procedures across the team.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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