The caBIG certification programme is a mechanism designed for software solutions to be certified as compliant with the caBIG compatibility guidelines. This certification demonstrates that SAPPHIRE satisfies the requirements, including:

• Programming and Messaging Interfaces: Allowing programmatic access to data from an external resource;
• Vocabularies/Terminologies: Permitting use of publicly accessible controlled vocabularies as well as local terminologies;
• Data Elements: Maintaining sufficient data element description built using controlled terminology with proper metadata storage; and
• Information Models: Offering electronic diagrammatic representation of the information model.

"More and more cancer and translational research organisations, such as NCI and its designated research centres, are seeking to standardize their laboratory informatics solutions to facilitate knowledge sharing, and in turn, achieve research success", stated Terry Smallmon, Director of Life Sciences at LabVantage. "For example, as part of the caBIG certified SAPPHIRE Suite, the SAPPHIRE BioBanking Solution is of critical importance to organisations needing to establish standardized information technology solutions for their biorespositories or biobanks", affirmed Mr. Smallmon.

LabVantage's SAPPHIRE BioBanking Solution has not only been selected to support the NCI Cancer Genome Atlas Biospecimen Core Resource, but has been adopted by numerous other institutions such as the Roswell Park Cancer Center, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, Harvard Channing Laboratory, Multiple Myeloma Research Consortium, onCore UK, National BioBank Register of Sweden, Institute of Information Industry (Taiwan), and a number of the world's largest contract research organizations, pharmaceutical giants, and fast growing biotechnology companies.

Built upon more than 20 years of laboratory information management know-how and almost a decade of thin-client computing experience, SAPPHIRE is well recognized as the industry leading thin-client LIMS and the premier biobanking solution for numerous institutions.

"The Bronze Certification of SAPPHIRE, the first LIMS and the only pure zero-footprint solution to achieve this distinction, is another validation of our continuous commitment to adopt informatics standards and be at the forefront of best-in-breed technology, functionality, and flexibility", stated Jim Aurelio, CEO & President of LabVantage. "With SAPPHIRE, we enable a truly collaborative and compliant environment for scientific research organisations, both inside and outside of the NCI community."