Baobab LIMS: An African Led Open Source Innovation for Biobanking

Baobab LIMS is an African-led innovation that was developed as part of the B3Africa consortium. It is an affordable sample and laboratory management tool for biobanking that has been implemented in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), which previously (due in part to financial constraints), were rarely able to implement a LIMS. Baobab LIMS is a Laboratory Information Management System for biorepositories of specimens and was developed using SOPs and workflows of a functional human biobank. The software system is an open-source tool with the code being freely available to users.  The users of the system would include biobanks, academic laboratories, and industry partners with a small budget allowance for LIMS software and equipment manufacturers and suppliers.

The system is continuously being updated with additional features and fixes and can be customised to individual needs. Employing a laboratory information management system not only increases laboratory efficiency and effectiveness but is a major contributing factor to enhanced laboratory management, quality control and GLP (good laboratory practice).