Your first PK/PD study
End-to-end: schema → animals → samples → analysis.
This tutorial walks an end-to-end Dalea workflow using a realistic mouse pharmacokinetics study: schema design → in-vivo phase → bioanalysis → reporting. Plan for ~15 minutes working through it with a free workspace open.
The in-app Learn hub at dalea.app/learn walks you through the UI step by step — schema, records, inventory — with overlays pointing at the actual buttons. The tutorial below is the longer reference companion: a narrative end-to-end study that goes deeper than a click-along can.
The study we'll model: DLA-7, a hypothetical small-molecule kinase inhibitor. Single oral dose at 3, 10 and 30 mg/kg in C57BL/6 females, plus a vehicle control. Plasma collected at 15 min, 1 h, 4 h and 24 h. Analyte is parent compound by LC-MS/MS; secondary readout is plasma IFN-γ by ELISA.
A PK/PD study touches every part of Dalea: an authored protocol, a multi-table data schema, two recording modalities (LC-MS and ELISA), inventory check-in/out, and a final summary document. If this fits your lab in 15 minutes, anything will.
Phase 1 — Schema design
Build the schema described in Designing an environment.
- Create the environment
Sidebar → Data → New environment. Name:
In-vivo PK. Audit reason: "Initial schema for the kinase-inhibitor PK programme." - Add the four entity tables
In order: Test articles, Study groups, Animals, Plasma samples. Use the column lists from Designing an environment.
- Add the PK results result table
Dimensions:
animal,timepoint_h. Measurements:concentration_ug_ml,auc_0_24,cmax,tmax.
Phase 2 — Pre-study setup
- Register the test article
Data → Test articles → +. Name:
DLA-7, modalitysmall-molecule, lotDLA-7-2025-04. Dalea generates article_idTA-1. - Define the four study groups
Vehicle, 3 mg/kg, 10 mg/kg, 30 mg/kg. Route is
PO. Each references the test article (vehicle references a placeholder "vehicle only" article). - Register 24 animals
Data → Animals → Bulk import. Paste 24 rows of sex/strain/ baseline-weight; assign 6 to each group. Dalea generates ANM-001 … ANM-024. The validation rule on weight (15–35 g) catches typos.
- Inventory check-out
Inventory → freezer L-204 → cryobox B-12. Right-click the antibody aliquot for your IFN-γ ELISA and Check out. The action records who took it, when, and decrements the quantity.
Phase 3 — Author the protocol
Create a document in your workspace called DLA-7 — Protocol. Add a
Protocol group block titled "Plasma collection". Inside it, add four
Protocol step blocks:
- Coat plate with capture antibodyLow hazard 8s demo (real procedure: hours)
Coat each well of a 96-well high-binding plate with anti-IFN-γ capture antibody (clone 2G1). Incubate overnight at 4 °C.
PPE: glovesReagents: Anti-IFN-γ capture mAb (100 µL @ 2 µg/mL) · Coating buffer (PBS) (q.s.) - Block non-specific bindingNo hazard 6s demo (real procedure: hours)
Wash 3× with PBS-T. Add 200 µL of blocking buffer (PBS + 1% BSA). Incubate 1 h at room temperature.
PPE: glovesReagents: PBS-T (0.05% Tween-20) (300 µL/well × 3) · BSA blocking buffer (200 µL/well) - Add standards and samplesLow hazard 6s demo (real procedure: hours)
Pipette 100 µL of standards (8-point, 2-fold dilution from 4000 pg/mL) and samples in duplicate. Cover, incubate 2 h at room temperature.
PPE: gloves, labcoatReagents: Recombinant IFN-γ standard (see dilution table) · Plasma samples (100 µL/well, duplicate) - Develop with TMBMedium hazard 6s demo (real procedure: hours)
After detection antibody and HRP-streptavidin binding, add 100 µL TMB substrate. Stop after 15 min with 50 µL 2 N H₂SO₄. Read at OD₄₅₀.
PPE: gloves, goggles, labcoatReagents: TMB substrate (100 µL/well) · Stop solution (2 N H₂SO₄) (50 µL/well)
The protocol document serves three purposes:
- a runbook the operator follows during the in-vivo phase
- a search target ("when did we last anaesthetise with isoflurane at 4%?")
- a regulatory artefact — version-pinned and signed at study close
Phase 4 — Run the in-vivo phase
This is the part Dalea can't do for you. With the protocol open:
- Tick steps as you complete them. Dalea records timestamps.
- Pop a
Plasma samplerow for each tube as you collect it (or batch-create at the end of each timepoint).
By the end of day 1 you have 24 animals × 4 timepoints = 96 sample rows in the
plasma samples table.
Phase 5 — Bioanalysis
Run the IFN-γ ELISA following Recording results. Use the plate map below; standards in cols 1–2, blanks in col 3, QCs in col 4, samples in duplicate in cols 5–12 (4 timepoints × 2 mice per row pair):
Read the plate, paste the OD₄₅₀ values into a result batch. Dalea fits the standard curve and back-calculates concentrations:
Repeat for the LC-MS run for parent compound. Each plate / instrument run becomes one result batch. Close the batches when the run is done.
Phase 6 — Reporting
Now the payoff. Create a document called DLA-7 PK summary. Add a chart
block with data source = Saved query and the query:
Mean concentration grouped by
timepoint_handstudy_group, with SEM error bars.
You get a publication-grade time-course in seconds:
Add a second chart block for IFN-γ kinetics. Add a lookup table that lists per-animal AUC, Cmax, Tmax (computed by Dalea's PK analysis preset). Finish with a callout summarising the study disposition (n animals, n samples, n unscheduled deaths).
Anyone in the workspace can open the document; the embedded charts and lookup tables always reflect the freshest data because they read from saved queries.
What you've built
In ~15 minutes you've gone from an empty workspace to:
- a versioned, queryable schema for in-vivo PK
- 24 animals, 96 samples, ~96 LC-MS measurements, ~96 ELISA measurements
- a runnable protocol with operator + timestamp records
- a live study-summary document publishing PK and PD readouts
Multiply that across studies and you can see why structured-from-day-one is worth the upfront discipline.