What
Welcome to the company website of envibee. Our company offers service and experience in three major areas:
    Workflows
   & software
    Non-target screening
   & data analysis
    Trainings
   & workshops

Who
envibee is a company located in Zürich (Switzerland) and combines competence in programming, natural sciences and data mining to develop and maintain customized workflow applications and to offer service and support in related fields.

Learn more about the company or directly contact us for further inquiries.
Workflows & Software
What
envibee developes computational workflow solutions for scientific data analysis and data mining. We provide solutions tailored to the specific needs of customers such as laboratories or research facilities, along with maintenance and user support.

+ Bottlenecks

Analysis of scientific data can be challenging. Often, large data sets need to be mined for relevant information or interesting trends and the results need to be prioritized, summarized and visualized. This can be automatized and achieved with the proper computational workflow tools. However, the development and usage of such tools is rarely straightforward.

For instance, and apart from their implementation, workflows need to be customized, streamlined and tested. They must be flexible enough to be updated with new data, new parameters or optional analysis steps - while performance issues such as calculation speed, stability and reproducibility have to be kept in mind.

Unfortunately, many users of scientific workflows are not that trained in computer coding to develop reliable workflow solutions themselves. Or to convert them into distributable packages. Or to maintain and document them. Or they are simply fully absorbed into the process of data acquisition and other routine work.

Furthermore, the efficient development of reliable and user-friendly software tools and workflows as well as guidance to their usage requires a combination of interdisciplinary background knowledge and programming skills.

envibee offers both.

webMass

How
For sound outcomes, computational tools and solutions are best developed in close interrelation with individual customers. Core functionalities of tools are herein built, modularized and organized into the desired workflows. To this end, we incorporate different programming languages and optional access to external or customer-specific databases. The resulting software packages can then be locally installed and utilized through convenient (e.g., browser-based) user interfaces.

✓ We first care to understand and conceptualize your needs for analysis ahead of any implementations.

✓ We then offer clear and payable software development schemes.

✓ We anticipate and communicate implementation problems before these schemes fail.

✓ We offer a contributor model for joint software projects and cost sharing.

✓ We provide workshops to train software users and offer lasting support.

Our products can be licensed under varying terms, and as requested. For instance, using higher languages and free environments such as R or Python, we are able to offer open-access (e.g., GPL licensed) solutions, which can also be made openly accessible. In this case, customers may not pay license fees but the actual development or modification and maintenance of a software tool. Other licensing terms offer more restrictive access, e.g., with solutions provided as part of Software- & Support-Packages.

Please have a look at the ongoing software projects for examples of such solutions.

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Nontarget screening & data analysis
What
Non-target screening (NTS) of mass spectrometric data is a relatively new but fastly developing approach for the chemical analysis of organic trace compounds and micropollutants in complex sample matrices. In contrast to the targeted analysis of known compounds, NTS focuses on the full range of measurable analytes, even if these are still unknown, or at best suspected to occur in a sample.

NTS greatly broadens the analytical scope. It can help to prioritize unknown analytes ahead of laborious identification attempts, and which might otherwise evade detection with targeted analysis alone. NTS also allows for a retrospective search of newly identified compounds in existing mass spec projects and measurements.

NTS analysis can often be based on existing and well-established LC/GC-MS instrumentation already applied for targeted analysis in many labs.

+ Bottlenecks

NTS is getting increasingly integrated in various fields of analytical chemistry, ranging from, e.g., environmental monitoring, to metabolomics and food and drinking water security. However, and despite remarkable advances in analytical techniques and interfaces, we have observed two major bottlenecks for implementing NTS:
  • A software solution for the intricate NTS data analysis is either lacking for the contracted instrument vendor or the existing vendor solution is not adaptable to certain NTS data analysis requirements.
  • Labs are frequently understaffed or too engaged with their daily routine to embrace and get trained in NTS technologies. It may not yet be clear to lab staff how to combine and streamline their targeted with an additional non-targeted analysis.
Our services at envibee help to overcome these bottlenecks. We encourage and support the routine usage of NTS and establish robust data analysis workflows and concepts for this promising technology and its future developments.

How
webMass We offer three NTS service types, depending on individual needs:

+ You want to use NTS in-house with your mass spec instruments

We have implemented a comprehensive NTS software solution for this purpose, called enviMass. All enviMass functionalities and possible applications are outlined on a dedicated → website. The workflow also covers the management of mass spec data via projects, the safe storage for retrospective analysis and for changing research perspectives, and the screening with customer-specific compound databases. All major instrument types and vendors are supported.

To date, we have implemented enviMass in dozens of academic, commercial and governmental labs world-wide, and incorporated over 5 years of user feedback from our software contributors. We have achieved experience in integrating this workflow with analytical routines and customizing it to user needs, and offer ongoing support and software maintenance.

+ You have mass spec measurements and want to outsource NTS data analysis

Provided with your LC/GC-MS measurements, we run a comprehensive target and non-target data analysis, and report back signals of concern, possible analyte candidates, and check your data for consistency. We also offer more advanced types of multivariate data analysis such as PCA, clustering, discharge correlations, catchment-wide studies and tailored scripting.

Our analysis service can be run for regular updates with new measurements from your lab, or for one-time projects. Outsourcing may also be used as a temporary option or as an analytical trial, ahead of establishing NTS analysis in your lab.

+ You have samples for NTS analysis

We can combine our services with those of our partner labs to measure your samples with high-resolution GC/LC-MS instrumentation and to report back analytes of interest - classified for targeted, suspected and non-target compounds. We will outline which analytical method might work best for your samples, and give feedback on your sampling strategy beforehand. We also offer a trend detection analysis, and different types of multivariate data analysis to learn more about the non-target compound distribution in your samples.


Please → contact us for any inquiries on how our NTS services can best aid you with your analysis.

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Trainings & Workshops
What
envibee offers trainings and workshops on its software and related topics.

+ Topics

  • Introductory short-courses on non-target screening and computational mass spectrometry.
  • Introduction to the enviMass target and non-target workflow functionalities.
  • Multivariate data analysis of enviMass outputs and access to its data structures.
  • Introduction to the R programming language and its basic data structures.
  • In-depth R usage, such as high-performance computing (Rcpp interfacing, optimizing code), R packaging and environments, functional programming, debugging, or parallelization.
How
Our trainings and workshops are held either online or on-site, and as part of software deliveries or when booked separately. Topics can be combined and tailored to individual needs and interests - and are best followed with your own data at hand.

Please → contact us for a listing of available trainings and contents or if you have a special interest in a certain topic area. We are happy to help you in finding those topics which are worth to explore for your applications or analytical needs.

Our courses are available in English and German.

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Meet us
  • SETAC Europe 34th Annual Meeting, Sevilla (ESP), Mai 2024
  • 6. Mülheimer Wasseranalytisches Seminar (MWAS 2024), Mülheim (D), September 2024