Set up a lab from scratch without buying five tools first
You're not consolidating anything yet. You're deciding what the lab runs on, and those first choices tend to stick. Conspecta is one project with the notebook, the analysis, the samples, and the figures already in it.
The whole lab, in one subscription
One project from day one. Notes, images, FCS files, and figures stay linked to the sample and the construct behind them.
Notebook
Notes, protocols, and sign-off live in the same project as the data they describe, so an entry links to the actual image or analysis rather than describing it from memory.
How most labs do it today. The notebook is a diary. It holds a description of the experiment, not the images, the FCS files, or the analysis that came out of it, so the entry and the data drift apart from week one.
Imaging
Cell detection, area, and intensity measurement in the browser on LIF, TIFF, and PNG, z-stacks included, with results attached to the sample and the image they came from.
How most labs do it today. Every student needs it installed, and some are on locked-down laptops with no admin rights. The output is a results.csv in a downloads folder that no longer knows which sample it measured.
Flow
Gating, compensation, and clustering in the browser, saved as a template the lab keeps. Flow cytometry is free for you and one collaborator.
How most labs do it today. A per-seat licence renewed every year, forever, and the gating strategy lives in a workspace file that walks out of the lab when the student graduates.
Figures
Multi-panel figures built from the analysis itself rather than pasted beside it, ready for the lab meeting, the poster, and the paper.
How most labs do it today. The figure is a picture, with no link back to the version of the analysis that produced it. Re-running the analysis means rebuilding the figure by hand.
Samples
Samples, freezer locations, reagents, and orders from day one, structured enough to be useful and light enough that a new student can use it in an afternoon.
How most labs do it today. The spreadsheet works until the second student joins. The LIMS is a procurement cycle, a demo, and a budget line you can't justify in year one.
Sequences
BLAST, CRISPR design, a cloning wizard, primer design, and alignment in the same project as the samples those constructs went into.
How most labs do it today. Another app, another login, and the construct you designed has no link to the experiment that used it.
Data plan
The organization is the tool, not a policy you have to remember. Data, analysis, and notes are already linked, and everything exports in standard formats when it's time to share.
How most labs do it today. The plan promises the data will be organized, documented, and shareable. Nothing behind it enforces that, so the organizing happens later, once the raw files are already spread across laptops and a departmental share.
Set the lab up before the first sample
Every workspace is included and it stays free while it's just you. Start with one project and grow the lab into it.