Wipe away your lab worries with Lab Partner

Maria started her BHF-funded PhD in Cardiovascular Research under the supervision of Professor Cathy Shanahan and Dr Susan Cox last October, focused on understanding the mechanisms driving vascular ageing.

Spending the majority of her time in the laboratory, Maria had an idea that would help improve the lab experiences of other students and researchers in the science community:

So came the idea of Lab Partner.

The app, which is in its design phase, aims to prepare researchers for any challenges they may come across in the laboratory. Users will be able to access pre-existing protocols, unlimited timers, calculators with built-in formulas, and much more.

The app also seeks to build a social network in the research community – whether for a postgraduate entering a new laboratory or a post-doc looking for inspiration for their experiments.

Maria explains: “The problems experienced by scientists in the lab are universal. However, there is currently no programme that allows people to share their experiences, and researchers end up repeatedly tripping over the same pitfalls. I hope that Lab Partner shall foster the shift away from the mentality of hiding negative results and aid people in progressing forward in their research more quickly and efficiently.”

Maria is currently compiling the ‘protocols section’ of the app, which will be a large part of the initial launch. She devotes her time going through online resources, putting them together in a user-friendly manner, as well as reaching out to professors in various fields to pinpoint the most vital protocols used in their labs.

With an ambitious goal to have the app released on the App Store on iOS and Android systems by this October to coincide with the start of a new academic year, Maria explains why people should consider downloading it:

Find out more about Lab Partner and keep up to date with its progress.