Customer Wins
Nanopath Accelerates Drug Discovery with Tabulous
How one biotech transformed research velocity while pioneering women's health breakthroughs.
Results at a glance
Key outcomes from Nanopath's Tabulous implementation
About Nanopath
Closing Critical Gaps in Women's Health
Nanopath is developing molecular diagnostics to close critical gaps in women's health, delivering instant, lab-quality answers at the point of care. Based in Cambridge, MA, this team of 21 is pioneering breakthrough technologies that address unmet needs in women's healthcare diagnostics.

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The Challenge
Fragmented Tools Slow Innovation
Existing Solutions Were Lacking
Missing Analytical Capabilities
Scientists needed self-service visualization and statistics tools built into their LIMS.
Excessive Cost
The cost of existing tools exceeded the value offered to the team.
Fragmented Workflows
Analysis was scattered across multiple tools, wasting researcher time.
Rigid Configuration
Existing ELNs were inflexible and couldn't adapt to Nanopath's pace.
As Nanopath's research took off and the team grew, their R&D workflows became more complex and required a streamlined solution. Manual data handling was time and resource-intensive, and the technical team was relying on fragmented tools for data analysis. The team needed a system that could grow with them, one built for scale, flexibility, and analytical rigor.
They initially implemented a leading Electronic Lab Notebook (ELN), but found it rigid and difficult to configure, with siloed inventory, experiment data, and analysis. Other ELNs that they considered were similarly limiting: data import was clunky and analysis still lived across half a dozen tools. For platforms marketed as central hubs, the tools’ fragmented experiences didn’t justify their costs.
The team was spending valuable time on manual data handling and analysis instead of focusing on their core mission of advancing women's health diagnostics. The path forward was clear: to accelerate progress, they needed a flexible, unified system built for AI analysis.
"Prior to Tabulous, the day before our team meeting used to be all analysis, copy-pasting Excel sheets, and visualizing the last week's experimental results."

The Solution
Unified Platform Delivers Immediate Value
Key Implementation Benefits
AI Assistant for Analysis
AI assistant for on-demand statistical analysis and data visualization.
Unified Tracking
Unified experiment tracking, analysis, and inventory management.
Reduced Team Burden
Reduced burden on software team for ad-hoc analysis tasks.
Saved Scripts
Saved scripts facilitate predictable, audited analysis pipelines.
Google Sheets Integration
Direct integration with Google Sheets for live, structured experimental data.
Registry Tables
Easy-to-configure registry tables link protocols to experiments.
Nanopath adopted Tabulous for its integration with existing tools, AI assistant for data visualization, and its ability to unify experiment tracking, analysis, and inventory in one flexible system. VP of Assay Development, Matt Black, Ph.D., led a pilot with two scientists to see if the tool offered immediate value.
The impact was immediate and transformative for the entire research team. "Tabulous makes every scientist on our team a data scientist," notes Matt Black. "Now we do analysis in real-time as the experiments are happening."
Unlike traditional LIMS platforms that require weeks of setup and onboarding, Tabulous delivered results on day one. With Tabulous, experimental results flow directly into Google Sheets linked to each experiment, keeping data structured, live, and accessible.
Researchers use the AI assistant for on-demand statistical analyses and visualization. Protocols are linked to experiments with easy-to-configure registry tables to ensure traceability. Data is well-structured and normalized, giving the team's data scientist a cleaner foundation for advanced analysis.
The platform has even enabled complex meta-analyses across multiple days and experiments. One researcher recently analyzed production reproducibility across 5 days of experiments and 3 production lots with ease thanks to the AI assistant.
"Tabulous makes every scientist on our team a data scientist. Now we do analysis in real-time as the experiments are happening."
Implementation Journey
From Pilot to Company-Wide Adoption
Starting with a two-week pilot with just two scientists, Tabulous quickly proved its value with cleaner, real-time charts and scaled to full company adoption within two months.
"We onboarded just two researchers at first — their graphs were better, their presentations were cleaner. By week 3, it was obvious this was the right tool for everyone."
The Results
Measurable Impact on Research Velocity
Tabulous quickly became essential at Nanopath, helping transform their research capabilities.
Tabulous now plays a critical role in Nanopath's development of cutting-edge point-of-care diagnostics for women's health. From bench scientist to CEO, everyone in the company works from a single source of truth. Analysis flows into Tabulous in real-time so decisions on future research directions don't have to wait for the weekly lab meeting. CEO & Founder Alison Burklund, Ph.D., emphasizes this transformative impact:
"Tabulous has been an invaluable tool for Nanopath, enabling our leadership team to quickly...prioritize future work to meet key company milestones."

Matt noted that Tabulous slashed analysis time by 80% and Nanopath scientists now combine more conditions in each experiment, relying on the Tabulous AI assistant to perform analysis without manual data manipulation. According to Matt, these two factors combined to increase experimental throughput by 20%, equivalent to 1.5 FTEs and $180k in savings.
While ad-hoc analysis happens continuously, key workflows are handled by standardized scripts saved in Tabulous. These scripts, audited by their software engineering team, ensure rigor and reproducibility.
Tabulous has freed the software team to focus on developing the Nanopath device and optimizing high-throughput workflows upstream of Tabulous. In their case study for the Medical Device Innovation Consortium (forthcoming), Nanopath noted Tabulous's AI capabilities "reduced [the] burden on Nanopath's software team by >80%." That same study noted that Tabulous has been a key component in increasing controlled storage of raw and analyzed data over 90%.
By unifying analysis, accelerating decision-making, and reducing engineering overhead, Tabulous has become an indispensable part of Nanopath's R&D engine. It empowers scientists to move faster with confidence, leadership to act on real-time data, and engineers to focus on building the future of diagnostics. Matt Black captured the team's sentiment perfectly:
"Tabulous is the most delightful product I've used in science or biology."
We're thrilled to support Nanopath as they deliver life-changing technologies for women's health with greater speed, clarity, and scale. Want to partner with us to accelerate your research too? Let's connect!
Key Metrics
Measured improvements from Tabulous implementation
"Tabulous has been an invaluable tool for Nanopath, enabling our leadership team to quickly access data across a range of research programs and effectively prioritize future work to meet key company milestones. Tabulous has allowed us to more efficiently advance technologies that address critical gaps in women's health diagnostics."

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