SoftMax Pro Software: The Importance of User-Friendly Software in Microplate Data Analysis
Top-of-the-line microplate readers produce assay datasets that can be complex to interpret and contain numerous data points. This makes intelligent analysis software essential for processing raw data, extracting trends, and illustrating findings while ensuring data integrity and security.
However, software analysis quality and capabilities vary significantly across different microplate readers in the market. The best choice depends on the user interface, data visualization capabilities, customization options across workflows and formula writing, and GxP compliance for regulatory readiness.
In this post, we discuss essential features of microplate data acquisition and analysis software and how they contribute to drug discovery and development in today's fast-paced pharmaceutical industry.
Role of Microplate Reader Software in Life Sciences
Historically, R&D laboratories relied on manual data entry into third-party platforms or Excel for macro reports. This method was time-consuming and error-prone, jeopardizing data integrity. The industry has since improved efficiency and accuracy by offering enhanced data analysis software to complement plate reader hardware.
To that end, Molecular Devices introduced SoftMax® Pro Software—a cutting-edge microplate reader data acquisition and analysis software—to address challenges in user experience, data quality, and regulatory compliance. Let’s look closer at these key features that make SoftMax Pro Software the most published microplate reader data acquisition and analysis software on the market.
User-friendly interface
In today's demanding biotechnology landscape, the ideal microplate reader software must provide users with a seamless experience for acquiring and analyzing complex data. A poorly designed, complex user interface that’s difficult to navigate can do more harm than good, necessitating a need for highly experienced staff or lengthy training for instrument and software use, adversely affecting research progress.
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SoftMax Pro provides a simple and streamlined user interface, with each button and menu item containing clear and concise descriptions of its function. The software also guides users as they select the ideal option for their specific reagents and assay applications from a library of over 200 ready-to-run protocols that help accelerate setup. The preconfigured assay parameters in these protocols spare users the hurdle of manual parameter-setting, eliminating potential human errors and speeding up microplate reader measurements.
Customized workflows using the Workflow Editor
The software also gives users the leeway to design custom multitask kinetic workflows for any assay, like analyzing bacterial growth for example, and set experiment parameters for more complex data acquisition. It also allows users to pause and resume reads at any given time. In both cases, setup can be completed in just a few clicks.
Follow these straightforward steps to create a multitask kinetics workflow with the SoftMax Pro 7 Workflow Editor:
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Flexible calculations for advanced data analysis
Overall, the user-friendly interface and flexibility of SoftMax Pro allow users to perform various assays with efficient data acquisition and analysis, all within the same software platform, offering different analysis methods tailored to each assay's requirements. This is clearly observed in a recent study by Liu et al, “Demonstration of Physicochemical and Functional Similarity of the Biosimilar BAT1806/BIIB800 to Reference Tocilizumab,” who used SoftMax Pro in data analysis for a comprehensive analysis of monoclonal antibody (mAb) production against inflammation. The researchers used the software to generate dose-response curves for not only mAb binding to the inflammatory cytokine IL-6 but also the downstream effects on the inhibition of signal transducers, growth factors, and T-cell response. Furthermore, SoftMax Pro was used to run Secreted Embryonic Alkaline Phosphatase (SEAP) Reporter Gene Assay and two separate cytotoxicity assays in the same study. (1)
High-quality representation of raw data
Microplate readers generate raw data with numerous readouts and dimensions. Manually transferring this data to a third-party analytics tool—and taking a manual, DIY-analysis approach—can be time-consuming. Therefore, it’s essential to have software that directly obtains raw data from its source, organizes multiparametric readouts, and presents them meaningfully without any heavy lifting by the user.
Offers 21 different curve fit options, including the four parameter logistic (4P) and five parameter logistic (5P) nonlinear regression models.
SoftMax Pro users have access to custom formula writing, various import and export options, and various data visualization options. It’s also compatible with many non-plate reader-based assays and can import and process raw data with ease to reduce dimensionality. It features several data analytics, including 21 curve-fitting modes, interpolation, and cross-plate analysis, automatically generating calculation results from relative potency to EC50 and Z factors. For effective visualization, the software groups results from multiple plates and displays them in various formats, such as automated 3D graphs and color maps, to show variations in readouts like fluorescence, absorbance, or luminescence across the plate.
GxP Compliance: Advanced software for data integrity and security
Finally, its comprehensive compliance tools provide an audit trail of computer-generated, time-stamped operator entries, ensuring data integrity and security in line with GxP standards, making it accessible and readable for regulatory agencies.
For pharmaceutical development and manufacturing facilities, demonstration of GxP compliance is non-negotiable. Regulatory agencies have strict demands to view the data analytic reports for a variety of experiments, including ELISA, nucleic acid quantification, cell viability, proliferation, and more. More importantly, chain of custody for entire workflows is a prerequisite for regulatory compliance. That's why microplate reader data analysis software should ideally provide audit trails disclosing full details of data acquisition and processing.
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Assuring FDA 21 CFR Part 11 compliance, SoftMax Pro GxP Software empowers full transparency through a Microsoft SQL Express database structure designed for data integrity and security solutions. The software operates through a granular permission control, assigning unique permissions and electronic signatures to users based on their roles and expertise. Thus, it ensures that specific data or protocol files can only be populated and modified by the user holding the relevant permission, ultimately mitigating data manipulation or unintentional modifications. Additionally, it provides a detailed system audit trail for a thorough electronic recording of all microplate reader workflows.
The publishing of high-quality reports is yet another highlight of SoftMax Pro Software. It can assist with regulatory reporting by exporting data output in PDF, Excel, and XML formats. In the search for a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2, the software was crucial to quantifying neutralizing antibody production by two assays and validating the results for regulatory assessment (3). Through its validated curve-fitting functionality, SoftMax Pro Software generated data on foci count and median neutralization dose, and performed regression to automatically reveal whether the results were suitable for reporting to vaccine licensing agencies.
From this perspective, SoftMax Pro GxP Software is a key component for establishing Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) and Good Laboratory Practice (GLP), which is becoming increasingly critical in biotechnology and life sciences.
The future of microplate reader data analysis in an increasingly strict compliance landscape
With increased demand for biomarker discovery and drug development, the need for standardized high-throughput quantitative methods has also increased. For a pharmaceutical product to be approved and distributed in the market, drug innovators must demonstrate full documentation of their instruments, methodologies, and operations to meet FDA and other regulatory agency requirements. For GxP accessment of microplate readers, laboratories must ensure hardware compliance with Parts 58, 211, and 820 and software compliance with Part 11 criteria for data acquisition and analysis.
At Molecular Devices, we strive to continuously improve our microplate reader software solutions to meet customer needs, as we have with SoftMax Pro GxP Software to assure full FDA 21 CFR Part 11 compliance. For extra reassurance, we offer software installation and validation services, verifying the software was installed and functions as intended. Combined with the IQ/OQ services and PM/OQ service plans for the SpectraMax microplate readers, the comprehensive software installation services facilitate a microplate reader workflow suitable for GMP/GLP-regulated labs.
By building a robust foundation in microplate reader data analytics, laboratories unlock the potential to broaden their research horizons. This empowers the seamless integration of innovative assay protocols, enhancing their drug discovery toolkit and driving forward the boundaries of scientific discovery.
- Liu, Y., Xie, J., Li, Z. et al. Demonstration of Physicochemical and Functional Similarity of the Biosimilar BAT1806/BIIB800 to Reference Tocilizumab. BioDrugs 38, 571–588 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40259-024-00662-5
- Calixto, Joao Batista, et al. "Evaluation of Phα1β Interaction on the Kv11. 1 Potassium Channel in HEK293 Cells Trans-fected with the Human ERG Channel." (2023). Evaluation of Phα1β Interaction on the Kv11.1 Potassium Channel in HEK293 Cells Trans-fected with the Human ERG Channel[v1] | Preprints.org
- Bewley, K.R., Coombes, N.S., Gagnon, L. et al. Quantification of SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody by wild-type plaque reduction neutralization, microneutralization, and pseudotyped virus neutralization assays. Nat Protoc 16, 3114–3140 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41596-021-00536-y