The LabDB laboratory information management system (LIMS) tracks, organizes and analyzes data from chemical and solution management, protein production, crystallization, diffraction, structure solution, and in vitro biochemical and biophysical experiments. The system is comprised of multiple modules specialized for different tasks, such as the Xtaldb system for crystallization or the hkldb module of the HKL-3000 suite for diffraction data collection and structure solution. The biochemical/biophysical experiments tracked by LabDB include spectrophotometric binding and kinetics, thermal shift binding, isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) and protein quantitation. These tools associate functional and structural experiments, for example, for selecting likely substrates for co-crystallization and soaking experiments. Whenever possible, the system harvests data with no or minimal user intervention from laboratory hardware. Devices that may connect to or import data into LabDB include crystal observation (Rigaku Minstrel HT and Formulatrix Rock Imager), liquid handling (Formulatrix Rock Maker and Emerald Opti-Matrix Maker), chromatography (GE Healthcare AKTA), quantitation (Caliper LabChip GX II and Bio-Rad Gel Doc EZ), RT-PCR (Applied Biosystems 7900HT and Bio-Rad C1000/CFX96) and ITC (MicroCal iTC-200) systems. LabDB is used by two high-throughput PSI:Biology centers (MCSG and NYSGRC) as well as other major NIH consortia (the Center for Structural Genomics of Infectious Diseases and the Enzyme Function Initiative), and track millions of experiments on tens of thousands of targets.[1] The system also provides extensive data mining and analysis tools for translating raw experimental data into information and knowledge. We present examples of analyses generated by the system useful in designing new experiments.

MxCuBE, is a beamline control graphical user interface (GUI) for macromolecular crystallography (MX) experiments that was developed by the ESRF and has been in use since 2005. The GUI provides the user with a friendly interface to electronic devices, permitting to carry out experiments in a intuitive environment while benefiting from the increasing automation. Since its release, MxCuBE has become the preferred MX data acquisition software, also installed at other European synchrotron sites [SOLEIL, EMBL@PETRAIII, BESSY and MAXLAB].In September 2013, after intense recoding, experiment design and testing, the ESRF has deployed MxCuBE2 on all the ESRF's MX beamlines. This new generation of GUI is capable of interfacing with a variety of low level control systems. MxCuBE2, written in the Python programming language, has a radical new appearance and provides an updated environment for performing complicated multi-crystal/multi-position MX experiments in a modular, logical and automatic fashion. ISPyB is a Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) conceived to record experimental parameters and basic reporting of the data obtained. Since 2009 ISPyB has been a collaboration between ESRF and Diamond Light Source (DLS) and the LIMS is now a multi-site, generic system for synchrotron-based (MX) experiments. The current version allows users to track their sample location (to/from & at the synchrotron), facilitates transmission of information from and to other LIMS, records experiment details, and provides the results - including reflection files - of automatic data processing protocols. Indeed as experiments have become more complex and automated ISPyB has become more than just a repository for project histories - it has become a support for rapid decision making during experiments. The combination of these two indispensable tools in every day users life at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility will be presented and discussed.