Recording results

Once you have a schema, recording results is a small ritual: open a result batch, fill it in, and seal it. This page walks through that ritual using a realistic cytokine ELISA on plasma samples from the PK study.

The example

We are quantifying mouse IFN-γ in plasma collected from study DLA-7. A standard 8-point curve plus blanks and QC pools, samples in duplicate, OD₄₅₀ readout, fitted 4-parameter logistic.

The plate layout looks like this:

The standard curve

After reading the plate, Dalea fits a 4-parameter logistic to the standards automatically. Each unknown is then back-calculated from its OD reading. Click a sample below to project its OD onto the curve:

Recording in Dalea

1. Open a result batch
   Data → Cytokines → New batch

   A batch is a recording session. It carries an operator, a timestamp, an optional audit reason and a status (open / closed / superseded).

2. Specify the schema and dimensions

   Pick the result table (e.g. plasma cytokines) and confirm the dimensions you'll group by. For this assay: animal, timepoint_h, analyte, replicate.

3. Enter or import measurements

   Three options:

   • Inline grid. Type values straight into a Localsheet grid.
   • Paste from the plate-reader CSV. Dalea maps wells to sample IDs using your 96-well plate block.
   • Upload a Benchling export. Dalea auto-detects the format and registers all linked objects in one operation.
4. Close the batch

   Closing seals the batch — further edits create a successor batch and mark the old one superseded. This is how Dalea preserves data integrity without making typos painful: you correct by re-recording, never by overwriting.

Querying results

Once recorded, results are queryable from anywhere a chart, a lookup table, or the AI assistant lives:

These all work without writing SQL. You configure them in the query builder, save them, and embed inside any document.

Replicate handling

Replicates are an extra dimension column. Recording duplicate samples means two records sharing all dimensions except replicate = A | B. Dalea's chart and aggregation engine collapses replicates by default but you can switch to "show all points" in any chart.

Auditability

Every result batch records:

• the operator (your user)
• the timestamp at create / update / close
• the audit reason (mandatory in regulated tiers)
• the source — manual / CSV import / Benchling / API
• a hash of the source file when imported, for traceability

Closing a batch is conceptually a digital signature. In 21-CFR-Part-11 mode it also asks for password re-authentication and records an explicit signing event.

What's next