We want to make it easier for tenant admins to stay current on what's changing in Benchling. Here’s some updates from October!

October Updates

Introducing Science Factories

[Benchling AI]

Science Foundries are shared workspaces where a team of agents collaborates with a team of scientists to run a scientific process together.  Agents handle the repeatable steps while scientists review, approve and make the final calls.

Get started by using chat. Describe a process or goal such as producing proteins or optimizing a lead, Benchling AI will use your scientific context to build your first foundry. It will design the agents and steps required then ask you to verify. Check out the video below to see a foundry in action.

Science Foundries are currently in Preview and do not consume AI credits while in Preview.

Plan and capture single-step reactions in notebook entries

[Chemistry]

Chemists can now plan and capture single-step reactions directly in a notebook entry, with stoichiometric calculations handled automatically. Reactions can be drawn in the sketcher, imported from common reaction files such as .cdx files, or built from molecules that already exist in Benchling, and planned amounts, actual amounts, and yield update as values are entered. Lots can be referenced in the reaction table to autofill purity and concentration, and salts and solvates are supported through a managed library. Submitting a reaction creates a searchable record that can be found by molecule substructure or similarity, and role, with a link back to the original entry. Chemists can also use Benchling AI chat to create and edit molecules and reactions, and search for reactions.

Reviews, draft testing, and exports in Template Publishing

[Notebook]

Template Publishing now includes built-in review, so every entry template and sub-template in a collection can be approved before it is published. Admins attach a review process to a template collection, and reviewers can approve or reject, with approver identity and e-signatures (when enabled) recorded in the audit trail. Authors can create test entries from a draft template before submitting it for review, and templates and sub-templates can be exported to PDF with publishing status and review history included. Approval does not publish automatically, so authors still choose when the new version takes effect.

Directly create and publish Automation templates

[Automation]

Creating and updating Automation templates is now faster and more direct, with no throwaway analysis needed along the way. Templates can be created as drafts from Template Collections or global create, edited in place using the same interface as an analysis, and published when ready for use. Users can view a template’s full configuration, including the inputs, outputs, and settings of each step, on a single screen, and check a template’s compatibility with different places it can be applied in Benchling. Column mappings can also be configured within the template, so end users no longer need to map columns when applying it.

Side-by-side image viewing

[Notebook]

Users can now compare images side by side in a single view. When two or more images are attached to an entry, template, or document, they group together in a layout that can be reordered, resized, and annotated, with a caption for each image and a renamable group title. Multiple images and other attachments can be uploaded at once, and non-image files appear below the image group. Single-image attachments work exactly as they do today.