Abstract: A connected ecosystem for a laboratory environment comprises an electronic lab notebook, and instrumented biosafety cabinet, and one or more sensing vessels containing cell cultures. The electronic lab notebook interfaces with the instrumented biosafety cabinet to provide instructions, guidance, and monitoring of a user during the set up of the experimental protocol and to receive commands from the user via one of several input modalities. After the experimental protocol has been set up in the instrumented biosafety cabinet, cell cultures may be moved to an incubator where the connected ecosystem may provide automatic monitoring of the cultures. The automatic monitoring is provided by sensors integrated into cell culture vessels and supplemented by images of the cell cultures captured by a camera. The user may be informed of deviations from expected results detected based on the automatic monitoring.

Abstract: A sensing cell culture vessel having one or more sensors on or in the vessel is configured to collect readings of various parameters or characteristics of a cell culture located within the sensing cell culture vessel and transmit the readings. The sensing cell culture vessels may be accompanied by a sensing plate having means for reading the one or more sensors and transmitting the one or more sensors to a server hosting electronic lab notebook for analyzing and storage of the readings. Sensing plates may further be equipped with cameras for imaging cell cultures located in the sensing cell culture vessels and transmitting the images to the server hosting the electronic lab notebook for analyzing and storage of the images. Embodiments of the invention allow for the continuous and automatic monitoring of cell cultures.

Abstract: A connected ecosystem for a laboratory environment comprises an electronic lab notebook, and instrumented biosafety cabinet, and one or more sensing vessels containing cell cultures. The electronic lab notebook interfaces with the instrumented biosafety cabinet to provide instructions, guidance, and monitoring of a user during the set up of the experimental protocol and to receive commands from the user via one of several input modalities. After the experimental protocol has been set up in the instrumented biosafety cabinet, cell cultures may be moved to an incubator where the connected ecosystem may provide automatic monitoring of the cultures. The automatic monitoring is provided by sensors integrated into cell culture vessels and supplemented by images of the cell cultures captured by a camera. The user may be informed of deviations from expected results detected based on the automatic monitoring.

Abstract: Vial assemblies comprising a tubular body and a flexible bottom or flexible liner are described herein, wherein the flexible bottom or liner is configured to compress at least partially upon the application of force. Methods for storing and removing frozen samples from such vial assemblies are also described herein.

Abstract: Vial assemblies comprising a tubular body and a flexible bottom or flexible liner are described herein, wherein the flexible bottom or liner is configured to compress at least partially upon the application of force. Methods for storing and removing frozen samples from such vial assemblies are also described herein.