General

FastFinder Studio 1.1 enables the creation of FastFinder Assay Plugins that are compatible for use in FastFinder Workflow, Analysis and Lab Management. With FastFinder Studio, labs can manage low to moderately complex assays without UgenTec’s assistance and can control key assay parameters right from within FastFinder.

This new release brings support for a major new capability: users can now create assays that require information from other assays, such as separate extraction control assays. The update also comes with support for multiple instruments & regular sample types. Moreover, users can now copy & disable assays – improving user experience. And finally, users can now configure what needs to happen with test samples when a control is invalid and/or missing, users can now be configured as a variable to be edited in FastFinder Analysis (“Lab depending cutoffs”).

As always, it is feedback from you that informs our roadmap, and allows us to keep improving FastFinder, so we want to thank you for your continued suggestions. Don’t hesitate to let us know how we can improve FastFinder even further.

Studio 1.1.5 (September 08, 2022)

Fixed bugs

• Assays could not be imported because their AssayShortCode exceeded the maximum number of characters.
• Adding a Cq cutoff in Rules did not work when multiple instruments were selected.
• Assay details was broken when the instrument IntelliQube was selected. All assays published before the fix cannot be opened in assay details. Publishing the assay again will solve this issue.
• Plate types were not correctly shown in Assay Details when multiple instruments were selected.

Improvements

• Introduced caching strategy to boost decision tree performance.

Studio 1.1.4 (July 08, 2022)

Fixed bugs

• Fix superfluous missing control notifications in assay plugins with multiple mixes.

Improvements

• Reduce memory footprint when a large number of assays is used.

Studio 1.1.3 (April 13, 2022)

New features

• Support additional instruments: Analytik Jena qTower, Bioer LineGene 9600, ThermoFisher Scientific QuantStudio 6 Pro.

Fixed bugs

The following issues have been fixed in this release:

• Copying a set of rules including a Cq cutoff generates an error preventing the assay to be published.
• Could not add a second control if the nametag already exists.
• Inconsistent naming of cutoffs.

Improvements

• Support for the latest version of our algorithm (v41). Note: existing assays will keep using the version that was released with Studio 1.0 (v34) or 1.1 (v40). When the Calling method ‘PCR instrument’ (which uses curve calls & Cqs from the Instrument) is chosen, assays still using v34 are automatically upgraded to v41 since that feature is not compatible with v34.

Studio 1.1.2 (February 18, 2022)

New features

With this release, we added support for assays that require external information and multiple regular sample types. We also introduced several new features aimed at efficiently creating and managing multiple assay plugins such as support for multiple instruments and allowing users to copy & disable assays.

• The user can now specify what needs to happen with test results when controls are invalid and/or missing.
• More complex cutoff rules were added: delta Cq & ΔRn ratios between targets & controls.
• Any variable can be made editable in FastFinder Analysis (“Lab dependent cutoffs”)
• Calling method ‘PCR Instrument’: the user can now choose to use the curve calls & Cqs from the Instrument. In Studio v1.1, the following instruments are supported:
  • LightCycler 480 Type I
  • LightCycler 480 Type II
  • Cobas z480
  • Quantstudio 3, 5
  • Quantstudio 5 Dx
  • Quantstudio 6 Flex
  • Quantstudio 7 Flex
  • Quantstudio 12K Flex
  • ViiA7
• New assays and existing assays for which no plugin was published before the Studio v1.1 release will use the latest version of our algorithm (v40). Existing assays will keep using the version that was released with Studio 1.0 (v34) unless the Calling method ‘PCR instrument’ (which uses curve calls & Cqs from the Instrument) is chosen since this feature is not compatible with v34.
  • Important: The intended use for the qPCR amplification algorithm is specifically in high throughput assay plugin configurations (relative high number of samples with low number of targets) with positive and negative control samples present on the plate.

Fixed bugs

The following issues have been fixed in this release:

• Saving and publishing of an assay with many targets or target results is slow
• Assay details are shown as the authorization token has expired (~10min) when clicking the Save-button
• Failed to publish when no assay target results were defined
• If a quencher is present in the mix, the (non-existent) quencher for other channels is also shown in Assay details view
• Is/IsNot operator is not shown for Ranges
• If a control is made without any expected calls, the AP should not be published
• Control remains valid even if mixes are missing