freeing scientists to focus on science

CytoGenie specifications

Annual Subscription

ScienceXperts® (SXPI) currently provides CytoGenie on annual subscription.  Lab licenses for CytoGenie permit up to three individual users, with keys for additional users available at any time for a yearly maintenance fee.  CytoGenie facility licenses, which are free, enable core FACS facilities to maintain an inventory of all their instruments configurations and make it available to all their participating labs.

A key give users 24X7 access to a dedicated, fully backed-up server, which contains their CytoGenie knowledge bases. Users may access this server from any computer with Internet service anywhere in the world.

 

Knowledge Bases

Using Stanford University’s ontology-based Protège software engineering, CytoGenie provides four different knowledge bases, which users see as a seamless whole:

The Universal Knowledge Base holds the latest commercially available data on flow instruments, biological reagents and stain sets, and other information needed to do flow experiments and clinical studies. Leading users of CytoGenie will continually contribute validated knowledge.
A Facility-wide Knowledge Base adds specific data on machines and reagents available in the user's flow facility. CytoGenie has automated entry forms for facility administrators to provide this information.
A Research Team Knowledge Base operates like the Facility Knowledge Base, but is limited in scope to the research team.
An Individual User's Knowledge Base provides the user with a private work area for writing, editing, storing and retrieving his or her own protocols.

Online and Off

The SXPI server automatically downloads the ever-evolving application, knowledge bases and all updates as part of the subscription service. At the end of every online session, CytoGenie places the latest copy of itself and the updated knowledge bases on the user’s computer. This allows the user to work offline. When the user next logs onto the server, any new work will upload to the user’s individual knowledge base and to any other relevant knowledge bases to which he or she has writing privileges.

 

Writing Authorization and Control

Only one person – the individual user, team leader or facility administrator – receives authorization to enter or modify information in the corresponding knowledge bases. This protects the knowledge bases against accidental overwriting and other errors. CytoGenie also tracks who makes every entry into every knowledge base, and allows only one copy of each to be open for writing at any given time. If a copy is currently open for writing, CytoGenie will prevent anyone else, whether authorized or not, from writing to the same knowledge base.

 

Privacy and security

CytoGenie maintains privacy and security by initially requiring users to log onto the SXPI website (www.ScienceXperts.com) to request an access key, which we send to the user’s email address. The user opens the email and clicks on a private link, which we periodically renew. This gives users sole control over access to their CytoGenie knowledge base and allows them the freedom to work with CytoGenie from any computer on which they can access their email servers.

 

Knowledge Sharing

Subscribers may override these protections and allow others to share writing privileges to a knowledge base.

 

System Requirements

  • CytoGenie can run on any Windows 2000, Windows XP, Vista, MAC OS 10.4.5 or later.
  • The program requires a minimum of 512 MB of random access memory and Java 1.5.
  • Windows users will need to download a free, self-loading copy of Java from Sun Microsystems. SXPI will provide subscribers with a link to the Java download site.
  • A monitor with a 1280x1024 or larger display works best, but is not required.
  • The latest versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer provide the most faithful display of the User Guide and other HTML documents.