Up at 5AM: The 5AM Solutions Blog

Mention Thanksgiving to any American and they will paint a picture in their head with gold, orange, red, and brown hues. It will also likely invoke a sense of family, gathering, and thankfulness. But color and the emotions we associate with them are not exclusive. If I were to show you a picture of red roses, a champagne bottle with an orange label and a gold foil box of chocolates, you would see the same colors but perhaps think of a different holiday and a different emotion.

One of the most prominent examples of breakthroughs in biomedical research is also a cautionary tale for biobanking. Henrietta Lacks checked into Johns Hopkins in January of 1951 where she was diagnosed with epidermoid carcinoma of the cervix. She was treated using an early form of radiation therapy, which did not successfully kill the cervical cancer. Biopsies were taken for testing, and additional biopsies were taken of cancerous and normal cervical tissue without Henrietta’s knowledge or consent.

I always say that there are two things that I love about 5AM: what I do and the people I get to do it with.  Nowhere else have I found a place where I can work on things that help to make a real difference in people’s lives with a group of such smart and dedicated people all focused on that common goal.  

This is the first in a three part post on color. This first post addresses some common drawbacks to using color; the second, Emotion and Color, examines common emotional interpretations of color; and the third, Designing A Color Palette, presents some approaches and tools for building a color palette.

From basic research and discovery activities through clinical trial evaluations, the standard collection, processing, storage, and tracking of biospecimens is vital. Genomics, particularly in the context of companion diagnostics, is a key driver for more and better quality biospecimens.

I started at 5AM Solutions as a summer intern while studying at the University of Maryland. I was looking for a full-time internship that fit my interests and accommodated my summer class schedule, but at the time I was unaware of how exceptional my experience at 5AM would be. Aside from superb mentoring and interesting projects, I got my first introduction into 5AM’s award-winning flexibility; I could set my own schedule and work from home when I wanted.

Life Sciences software is often delivered late, over budget, insufficient or not delivered at all. By following these 5 simple principles you can mitigate the risks and increase the factors for success.

According to the Rand Corporation, “The number of tissue samples in U.S. banks alone was estimated at more than 300 million at the turn of the century and is increasing by 20 million a year.”1 Given the sheer volume of tissue samples that continues to grow year over year, several countries, including the U.S. have formed regulatory boards that manage specific standards and regulations as relates to their own domestic biobanking industry.  While these standards and regulations vary from country to country, most are geared towards:

Open communication is a concept that most companies claim to have, but few truly practice or achieve.  I have seen first hand, the pitfalls of poor communication and the disarray it can cause within an organization. Some of the greatest examples that illustrate the benefits of open communication can be seen with some of the products and services we use every day.

Lately I have found myself doing a lot of search-based navigation designs. Why is that? I think the number one reason is that it’s the most flexible of the navigation patterns, falling somewhere between pure search and menus. Faceted navigation is the filtering navigation you often see down the lefthand side of retail sites such as Amazon.com or Zappos.com.

Last week we discussed three controlled vocabularies that are used in biobanking. This week, we will discuss some data standards that use those vocabularies to make shared data models that can be used to shape and share biobanking data.

I think that Confucius said it best, “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” When I wake up in the morning, I think what is going on at 5AM today? There are many reasons that I love working at 5AM; however, I decided to limit this post to 3 reasons.