ChemBytes -

Experiment Self-Organization

Imagine you could add random experiments to a project folder - and these experiments would magically begin to arrange themselves into steps, sequences and schemes, presenting themselves as interactive, always up-to-date reaction schemes. Well, that's exactly what Espresso ELN does. All you need to do is to assign an experiment to a project folder - and the rest happens by itself.

Safe Storage & Knowledge Sharing

Safe storage and knowledge sharing are among the most important arguments for using an electronic lab notebook. The optional, fee-based Espresso ELN Server licenses serve exactly this purpose: Every 15 minutes all changes applied to your local database are synchronized to your central SQL Server database. This database not only allows restoring your local database at any time, but also makes all finalized experiments accessible to global searches

IP Protection: Digital Signatures

Your work is valuable. Not only for you, but also for the organization you work for. An important cornerstone to ensure intellectual property protection is the use of a digital signature. Espresso implements digital signatures to finalized experiments, adhering to the RSA PKCS #1 standard for digital signatures. Since any changes to the signed experiment content are detectable after signature, this provides reliable proof of integrity for you.

Reaction Substructure Searches (RSS)

Reaction substructure searches (RSS) are a powerful tool for chemists. In addition to chemical drawing based RSS-searches, Espresso also supports the efficient text-based SMARTS query format. The query occurs via a local, ChemBytes proprietary query engine, no server required. The returned results are conveniently grouped by identical reaction, and within the group further sorted either by yield or by scale (user-selectable).

Performance & Server Independence

Espresso ELN was built from ground up to work in a server-independent manner. Since it always first interacts with a local database to perform its tasks, it features a remarkable responsiveness. When (optional) server licenses are in place, the local database synchronizes through a background process with the server, whenever it is available, and collects changes when it is not.

Lab Notebook Look & Feel

An Espresso ELN protocol behaves much like a paper lab notebook, where content is placed sequentially and exactly where it belongs to in the protocol workflow, including images and other embedded data. All user-entered data are kept in one place and in the right sequence - there's no scattering of different elements around various interface locations.

Recognizing Protocol Content

Espresso ELN has the unique ability to interpret relevant components of the protocol. This e.g. allows the automatic generation of temperature/time graphs whenever a sequence of conditions is being added to the protocol (e.g. heat, keep at, cool down), or to create 'shopping lists' conveniently summarizing the total of all required experiment materials by name and catalogNr. 

Simple & Robust Infrastructure

Great functionality does not necessarily mean a complex and difficult to maintain infrastructure. The (optional) Espresso ELN server infrastructure is lean and straightforward, the required database administrator support is minimal. Users even can restore their own local databases directly from their clients.