| To efficiently track the progress of a lab project, it is often necessary to traverse different views within Sesame, gathering
data from
a variety of stages of progress. Sesame is capable of linking records from different views to create an electronic papertrail along the
entire length of the project. Records are linked through directed queries. For example to link a record detailing a
protein purification to the record detailing the plasmid used to express the protein, a user would open the protein purification
record and select Plasmid Query from the Proteins menu. A pop up box will appear through
which the user can search for a specific plasmid (by owner, protein name or database number). The appropriate plasmid can be highlighted
and linked to the protein by dragging and dropping it onto the frame of protein record open on the Board. A new window will appear
asking the user to specify information to be transferred to the protein record. Clicking OK completes
the task. Similar processes can be used to link other record types. Alternatively,
different record types can be linked by dragging and dropping an entry directly from the search window onto the frame of a record open on the
Board. It is important that the entry being dragged and dropped is from an earlier stage in the experimental process (ie, a plasmid
record can be dragged and dropped onto a protein record, but not the reverse). In many different views, records can be linked to a specific gene model
for an ORF. This is accomplished via a similar mechanism using the Query ORFs in a Workgroup functionality. |
| In some cases, it may be useful to also link different work groups together. For example, if the contents of a 96 well plate are
reformatted at an intermediate step in a lab process, it may be useful to also reformat the ORFs in the Sesame work group at the same time.
To do this, create a new work group record, highlight the ORFs to be transferred from the original record and drag and drop them onto
the frame of the new work group. This process can also be used to merge multiple work groups into a single new work group. When ORFs are
moved from one work group to another, Sesame notes the previous work group number and well position, so that the electronic paper trail
is maintained. |
