With the increase in analysis of biological samples and data generation, you would have guessed that there were systems on the market that could be easily tailored to the needs of different labs to keep track of what is happening to the samples, which analyses are run, and what kind of information and metadata* have been collected.
*Metadata could for example be whether the sample has been taken from a man or a woman, which is relevant when you want to study if there are gender differences.
This is not the case according to employees at the Department of Pathology at the University of Oslo (UiO) and Oslo University Hospital (OUS). Rather it is not rare that each lab or even each employee have their own system, often in a spreadsheet.
The inefficiencies in current systems waste valuable time, introduce inconsistencies, and slow down scientific progress.
From the application of innovation funding
A flexible system for any samples and any data
In the innovation project realTSS – Real Time Tracking Sample System from Laboratory to Publication project leader Karen Sivertsen Utheim, who is head engineer, and Diana Domanska, who is a senior researcher, are planning to develop a management system for collecting and sharing data.
– Today we can generate so much data from each sample. The experiments are usually quite costly, so the value of the sample itself expands to all the data related to that sample. If that can be reused that brings extra value to the work that has already been done, says Utheim.
– There are two aims of our project. One is to make it easier for the researchers themselves to organise the data and not have to invent their own system. But then also that when the data is collected, it is easier to share it within an organisation or with collaborators, says Domanska.
Before concluding that they had developed a system on their own from scratch, they had scrolled through what is already available on the market without finding a solution that matches their need. They have also made a survey among potential users to find out more about the needs of others.
They want to make a global solution. Themselves, they mainly work with human samples collected for genetic analysis, but they want to develop a flexible system that can handle samples from any species for different kinds of analyses.
Now they are working on the prototype and will perform the testing from April. At first, they will test in a laboratory at OUS. Later they will proceed to labs at UiO. In parallel they are in dialogue with companies.
Domanska tells that they have engaged three interns through NAV to develop the prototype. They are hired through the job opportunity programme – a program funded by IMDi (the Directorate of Integration and Diversity) to help immigrant women with limited formal education or work experience to gain the skills they need to enter the Norwegian labour market.
Developing the project with support from the UiO Growth House
In the spring 2025 Utheim and Domanska applied for seed funding from the UiO Growth House. They were not granted funding in that round. However, in line with the practice of the UiO Growth House, they were offered to meet with an innovation adviser in the Growth House to discuss the application and how to proceed with future applications and the project. They followed the advice they were given and were successful when they applied for the UiO innovation funds fall 2025.?
– This is a great example on how very early innovation projects that are not granted funding from start, succeed after innovation advice and support from the innovation advisers in the UiO Growth House. This is why we contact all applicants, both those who are granted funding and those who are not granted and offer the applicants an initial conversation and follow-up conversations, says innovation director Hilde Nebb.
– A no on an application, doesn’t mean that your innovation idea doesn’t have potential, so the guidance for all projects that have applied on a call is important to make sure that projects with potential are developed further. Before the UiO Growth House was established in 2022, projects that got rejected from UiO’s own innovation funds, the SPARK innovation programmes or our technology transfer office Inven2, had nowhere to get this kind of low-threshold support and many projects with potential where terminated.
Moving into the unknown business landscape
For Utheim and Domanska working on an innovation project is completely new landscape, and they are grateful for the support that they receive from the UiO Growth House.
They have gotten suggestions on people that they should contact to figure out more of the financial aspect and how to make a viable business out of the innovation project. They will make a business plan and go more into their goal, users of the product. They also plan to attend a business training course.
The UiO Growth House has already linked them with ShareLab, a shared laboratory space in Oslo Science Park. The Lab Lead at ShareLab and other experienced scientists they have spoken to see the value of such a sample management system.
Utheim and Domanska have also been offered to use a shared office space in ShareLab to be surrounded by other innovative researchers and startups and possibly also get guidance on how to navigate in the business landscape.
– We are also planning to meet with this hospital purchasing unit and also speak to the technical department at UiO, both to see what kind of technical requirements would be needed for our system, but also what they put weight on when they decide on software that they use or buy for the university as a whole, says Domanska.
The financial support from the Growth House will be crucial in hiring consultants who can build a more robust software and to attend a course to build a business model to follow up the project after testing the prototype this spring.
- This article was written for the annual report of the UiO Growth House 2025.?
Read the report in Norwegian.