Ordering a kit for an experiment could quickly become a nightmare. There are an incredible amount of suppliers out there who are selling similar products that could greatly vary in price and quality. Finding a neutral review on these products is also quite hard as all available references tend to be made by suppliers themselves. Have no fear; this time is ending thanks to Zageno, the Amazon for labs!
Zageno is building a digital marketplace dedicated to the life science industry. Enriched with an impartial scientific trust score, researchers can use it to find and buy their biotech kits, spending more time on their scientific challenges instead of searching the right kit.
Since they were all scientists frustrated with this same issue, the team behind Zageno is highly familiar with this problem. Their reaction was to develop a one-stop shop for lab kits that could help researcher save time, money, find unknown products and get tips and tricks for their experiments.
A reliable scientific score to rate kits
Product rating systems are a great way to assess products quickly. Just think about the last time you ordered on Amazon. I’m sure you had a look at the rating and users’ comments. However, a simple 5-star rating on scientific products does not really tell you much about the applications or the context of the experiments. This is why Zageno felt the need for a more objective and scientific way to evaluate products on their platform. For this reason, they developed the Scientific Score.
We wanted to bring together all neutral information on products available. This is why we built our scientific score on publication mentions, citations, social impact, positive & negative reviews, etc.”
To ensure that no single factor dominates, they added cut-off points and gave more weight to recent contributions. The score will be updated and become more accurate over time, maintaining the relevance of the rating. This score could be a huge time saver for scientists, as it will help them choose a reliable kit that delivers good results on the bench.
Building a life science research community
Zageno just launched its new version this month with already more than 4,000 products referenced. The Berlin-based startup has great plans for the future. Features like troubleshooting, user comments, and user guidelines will be soon added to the platform, making it more social and user-focused.
Another useful tool will be the ability to compare different kits directly and assess their respective characteristics. As scientists themselves, the team of Zageno will also develop protocols that are based on user experience and not only supplier recommendations.
Zageno plans to launch Eureka Methods, their own journal focused on protocols and lab methods. Are you always struggling to perform a protein purification? Eureka Methods will give you an easy answer that you can reproduce in your lab. The journal will be open to external contributions and user reviews to make it a collaborative platform for their users. It will be a nice way to learn about new products that could be helpful in the lab or tips to make your experiments more efficient.
Changing the way we buy lab equipment
Zageno has a bright future. The platform is already used by world’s best life science universities like Stanford, MIT or ETH Zurich. The startup has raised some funding earlier this year to ensure their development and the growth of the platform.
More features will come soon, and new products lines will be added quickly. The vision of the startup is to help researchers save time (and money!) and be more efficient with their lab equipment. At the end, Zageno could definitely change the way labs are buying their equipment and offer a solution that fits our current consumer behavior.
Want to try it? Just follow this link.
Feature Image Credit: Zageno