Webinar Recap: Supercharging Chromatography Workflows with FAIR Data Use Cases

ZONTAL recently partnered with Astrix for an insightful webinar, “Supercharge Your Chromatography Workflows with FAIR Data Use Cases,” featuring Kelsey Boyle, Director of Product Management at ZONTAL. This session explored how laboratories can revolutionize their chromatography workflows, enhance data accessibility, and leverage FAIR data principles to drive efficiency, compliance, and innovation.

Table of Contents

Addressing the Growing Challenges in Chromatography Data Management

The chromatography landscape is evolving rapidly, with laboratories in life sciences, pharmaceuticals, and biotech facing mounting data challenges. As chromatography represents a significant portion of analytical data, organizations must overcome inefficiencies in data handling, integration, and compliance to unlock the full potential of their data.

Key Challenges in Chromatography Workflows:

Fragmented Data Across Systems – Chromatography data is often siloed across ELNs, LIMS, and proprietary software, making cross-functional analysis difficult.
Lack of Standardization – Each instrument vendor (Agilent, Waters, Thermo Fisher) uses unique file formats, hindering seamless data exchange.
Regulatory & Compliance Pressures – Laboratories must navigate complex global compliance requirements, with active regulatory submissions in over 120 countries.
Data Growth & Complexity – Expanding scientific datasets demand scalable solutions to support AI-driven analytics and machine learning applications.
Mergers & Acquisitions Complexity – Acquiring new labs often means inheriting disparate chromatography data, further complicating data integration.

How ZONTAL’s FAIR Data Approach Solves These Challenges

ZONTAL’s FAIR data platform (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) empowers laboratories by transforming chromatography data into a universal chromatography data hub that is structured, AI-ready, and scalable. Key benefits include:

Enterprise-Scale FAIR Data for Chromatography – A robust platform designed to unify chromatography data across vendors and systems.
Proactive Quality Control & Compliance – Enhance real-time compliance tracking and streamline regulatory audits.
Seamless Data Integration – Consolidate chromatography data from LIMS, ELNs, and analytical instruments into a centralized FAIR repository.
Automated Data Standardization for Faster Insights – Ensure data consistency and accelerate decision-making.
AI & Machine Learning Readiness – Structure chromatography data for advanced analytics, predictive modeling, and process optimization.
M&A Data Harmonization – Integrate legacy and new data into a single, searchable platform for seamless access.
Allotrope Foundation Partnership – ZONTAL aligns with global FAIR data standards through its collaboration with the Allotrope Foundation.

By implementing ZONTAL’s FAIR data approach, organizations achieve enhanced visibility, regulatory confidence, and accelerated R&D processes.

Key Use Cases in Chromatography Workflows

During the webinar, ZONTAL showcased how laboratories can move beyond fragmented data storage to a seamless AI-ready chromatography data pipeline that is future-proof and structured for analytics. The three core pillars of ZONTAL’s approach include:

Data Collection & Storage – Ensuring archival, decommissioning, and preservation of chromatography data.
Data Integration – Unifying data from ELNs, LIMS, and diverse laboratory systems for cross-functional accessibility.
Data Reuse – Enabling visualization, secondary analysis, and AI-powered insights.

Digital Method Transfer & Standardization

Ensuring consistent chromatography methods across instruments and locations is critical for accuracy and reproducibility. ZONTAL enables:

Centralized Storage of Chromatography Methods – Standardize access across sites and ensure method consistency.
Normalization of HPLC Parameters – Reduce instrument variations and enhance reproducibility.
Cross-Vendor Method Execution – Enable seamless method transfer across different software ecosystems.
Chromatography Viewer Comparisons – Overlay chromatograms from different vendors to analyze peak resolutions and retention times.

Data Integration & FAIR Data Transformation

To fully leverage chromatography data, seamless integration and transformation into a structured format are essential. ZONTAL facilitates:

Automated Data Ingestion – Capture and harmonize chromatography data from diverse sources.
Metadata-Rich Searchability – Tag and structure data for enhanced traceability and compliance.
AI-Powered Insights – Enable predictive analytics by preparing chromatography data for advanced applications.
Real-Time Chromatogram Overlays – Compare chromatography results across instruments to ensure method consistency.

Intellectual Property Protection & Regulatory Compliance

Long-term data integrity is crucial for safeguarding intellectual property and meeting compliance requirements. ZONTAL provides:

Secure, Validated Archiving – Maintain chromatography experiments in a searchable, compliant format.
Audit-Ready Data Trails – Adhere to stringent regulatory policies and facilitate seamless audits.
IP Protection for Patents & Legal Proceedings – Ensure robust documentation and data traceability.
FAIR Data Exports for External Use – Convert data into standardized formats for compatibility with third-party tools.

Mergers & Acquisitions – Unifying Legacy Data

Integrating legacy chromatography data post-M&A is a major challenge. With ZONTAL, laboratories can:

Ingest & Standardize Disparate Data – Transform legacy data into a unified, accessible structure.
Reduce IT Complexity – Consolidate historical and current data into a single, scalable platform.
Enhance Data Governance – Strengthen compliance and ensure full traceability of chromatography records.
Enable Cross-Site Comparisons – Analyze historical and newly acquired chromatography data within a unified system.

ZONTAL’s Chromatography Viewer: Unlocking FAIR Data Insights

The webinar introduced ZONTAL’s Chromatography Viewer, a powerful tool designed to bring chromatography data to life in an interactive and structured format. This tool enables:

Cross-Vendor Data Comparison – Analyze chromatography results across different instrument vendors.
Chromatogram Overlays – Compare retention times, peak resolutions, and method performance.
Advanced Metadata Enrichment – Integrate chemical structure search (SMILES), annotations, and linked audit trails.
Regulatory Report Generation – Export chromatography visualizations for compliance submissions.
Real-Time Collaboration – Allow multiple users to access and analyze chromatography data within a centralized FAIR data environment.
Transforming Raw Chromatography Data into Actionable Intelligence – Provide data-driven insights for enhanced process control and decision-making.

By leveraging ZONTAL’s Chromatography Viewer, laboratories gain deeper insights, greater efficiency, and full control over their chromatography workflows.

Watch the Webinar On-Demand

If you missed the live session, you can still access the full webinar on-demand to explore how ZONTAL’s innovative FAIR data approach is transforming chromatography workflows.

For more information on how ZONTAL empowers chromatography data management, contact us for a personalized demo.