Rescentris Releases Version 2.5 Of Its Semantic Notebook, CERF - The ELN For Biology
CERF Development Kit Gives Clients Control of CERF Extensibility Framework with Ontology Manager
Columbus, OH - Rescentris, Ltd., a provider of electronic laboratory notebook (ELN) software for biology and multi-disciplinary life sciences, announced the immediate availability of CERF 2.5 and the CERF Development Kit (CERF-DK) to help life sciences organizations better manage their research information. CERF (Collaborative Electronic Research Framework(TM)) is the industry's only ELN built on semantic web technologies. The semantic engine in CERF enables it to capture the meaning and relationships in R&D information as well as the experimental context in which data are collected - all transparently, while the scientists do their work.
An ontology is defined as a set of concepts and their relationships. The core functions of CERF are encoded declaratively using ontologies. The use of ontologies for semantic representations of research facilitates the transformation of data into actionable and reusable research knowledge. "The lab notebook is the key interface between scientists and information assets," stated Rescentris CSO, Dr. Jeff Spitzner, "and CERF 2.5 was designed to accomplish much more than just collecting results and creating research records. We believe it is essential to assist scientists through the entire research process and automate as much as possible so they can spend more of their time engaged in innovative science." The CERF Development Kit was designed in collaboration with clients who are already using it to tailor the CERF experience to the needs of their organizations.
The CERF 2.5 Notebook system is engineered for rapid deployment - out of the box, with only minor configuration - to get the client organization up and running productively. Then the CERF Extensibility Framework makes it easy to adapt the solution to the client's specific needs for workflows and research practices. The Ontology Manager is used for Knowledge Representation - to create appropriate scientific data and metadata models, including controlled vocabularies and context-specific forms that provide consistent research annotations. It also manages templates - for a single Notebook entry or all the forms, documents, slots, and protocols structured for a complete experiment - set up using form-based tools, but stored and versioned as OWL ontologies and contents packaged in XML. The CERF 2.5 system also provides Knowledge Integration. Data-driven services are registered based on resource types and workflows, and the semantic inference engine ensures that user menus are dynamically updated with available actions. Access to external data sources, such as scientific databases, is provided at the CERF Desktop through simple query forms; the connections are set up on the CERF Server using the form-based Integration Manager to create wrappers with minimal effort and maximum reusability.
"CERF is built using open standards such as XML, RDF, and OWL ontologies," stated Dr. Joseph Spitzner, Rescentris CTO. "As a result, our clients' information assets are not held hostage, and their data are not locked away in proprietary formats. CERF 2.5 was designed to future-proof research content and manage it in an open, extensible system that is easily supported, configured, and customized by your IT staff or by Rescentris to meet the demands of R&D for today and tomorrow." With CERF, Rescentris principals continue their long history of developing standards-based applications, dating back to their 1997 release of the first XML data standard for life sciences, BSML, used to represent bioinformatics data.
CERF 2.5 is available immediately with the optional CERF-DK that includes the Extensibility Framework tools, a development server, and Rescentris professional services and training to tailor the system to meet the diverse needs of the organization.
SOURCE: Rescentris, Ltd.