eLabFTW

eLabFTW is an open-source, self-hosted electronic lab notebook manager designed for research teams. It provides a centralized system to store and organize research experiments and maintain databases of laboratory objects such as antibodies, plasmids, and cell lines. The application is accessed via a web browser and supports multiple research teams on a single installation, making it suitable for use at the institutional level where various groups can coexist on one server.

Deployment is handled through Docker on GNU/Linux servers, which bundles the necessary PHP, web server, and MySQL components into containers. This containerized approach simplifies the installation process and makes version upgrades more manageable by removing the need to manually configure server extensions. The system is designed as a self contained service to keep data within the local environment and prevent leakage to third party services.

Key features

• Lab notebook for documenting experiments
• Resource database for reagents, equipment, and cell lines
• Trusted and blockchain timestamping
• Calendar for equipment booking management
• Molecule editor and LaTeX support
• Public REST API for external integrations
• Advanced permissions system for sensitive research
• Support for various scientific file formats
• Multi-language support available in 21 languages

The software is built for researchers and companies that require high traceability and reproducibility in their processes. It includes a todo list for task management and supports various import and export formats to ensure data portability. For developers, the public REST API allows for the creation of custom libraries and plugins. The ecosystem includes community projects such as Python and JavaScript wrappers, as well as specialized tools for sample tracking and bulk data importing.

This application serves as a secure, audited knowledge base for scientific data management and laboratory resource coordination.