The articles in this section explain how to add scientific context to your workflows with element grouping.
This video demonstrates how to add, edit and remove element grouping.
When you design and plan a workflow, you might think in terms of the scientific context of what you want to achieve, rather than the liquid handling steps that the workflow requires.
For example, your workflow might quantify some unknown samples. This breaks down into scientific processes for preparing your samples on an assay plate, preparing your standards for a standard curve, then adding a reagent that triggers a measurable output to generate data for analysis. In reality, from an execution perspective, what this might mean is you aliquot or dilute your samples into the assay plate, serially dilute your standard on the assay plate, then mix the assay reagent onto all of your samples.
When describing a workflow from the liquid handling actions alone, you lack the scientific context of what the workflow was for and why it might be carried out in a certain way.
When and why might you want to add scientific context to your workflows?
1. Create your workflows starting from the science and not from the steps
As described above, when you design a workflow, you might start with the higher-level scientific context before planning which liquid handling actions you need to do to satisfy that scientific context.
You can start building your workflows from your scientific context, describing the higher level steps so that they later guide you through the liquid handling actions you need to put in place to satisfy that part of your workflow.
2. Understand the scientific intent of your and others' workflows easier and quicker
When interpreting your or others’ workflows, the knowledge of the liquid handling actions alone isn’t enough to understand the scientific intent of that workflow.
Using element groups, you can add titles to subsections of your workflow along with more detailed descriptions about what that section of your workflow is for, why it was designed in that particular way, or to add instructions so that colleagues can reuse, copy or adapt their own workflows from yours.
With element groups, you will be able to understand the scientific intent of any workflow in Synthace easily and more quickly.
This series of tutorials explains how to use element groups to add scientific context to your workflows