Looking for a free tool to organize your lab inventory? Enter LIME

What is it about?

When I opened my lab, I immediately realized that managing inventories was a pain. I wanted to create a database system that would work like a Structured Query Language (SQL) and that would be easy to use by students and anyone with little training. However, many tools were hard to implement. The sis when I started to brainstorms with my students about creating our own tool. We called it Laboratory Inventory Management Engine or LIME. This is a free tool for managing laboratory inventories via barcode scanning to automatically send information to spreadsheet files stored in the cloud.

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Photo by Mohamed Marey on Unsplash

Photo by Mohamed Marey on Unsplash

Why is it important?

LIME integrates seamlessly with smartphone barcode scanning technology. It was created to address a common challenge faced by research laboratories: keeping accurate, up-to-date records of supplies. The system pairs a customizable spreadsheet with a barcode scanning mobile app, enabling users to scan barcodes on reagents and equipment to automatically update inventory records. Each item scanned is logged and categorized into designated storage locations—such as “4°C,” “Reagents −20°C,” or “Antibodies”—allowing for organized, real-time tracking. The goal is to reduce the time spent locating materials and allow researchers to focus more on experimentation.

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