It’s been a great start to 2013 at Science Exchange.

In the past couple months, we’ve grown the number of scientific services available via the Science Exchange platform to almost 5,000, including listing services from entire divisions of Harvard and Purdue University. And we’ve seen a dramatic increase in services ordered via our platform, already matching our volume from all of 2012.

As we look ahead to the rest of 2013, we’re excited to announce that Science Exchange has closed a Series A financing round, raising an additional $3 million in venture capital to further expand and grow our marketplace. You can read coverage of the announcement in the Wall Street Journal’s AllThingsD blog.

We’re excited to add an amazing set of new investors to the Science Exchange family:

• Union Square Ventures (USV). USV, who led the Series A round, has an unrivalled reputation in early stage investing with exceptional experience in supporting marketplaces such as Etsy, Shapeways, Kickstarter, and Funding Circle. We’re especially delighted to add USV partner Andy Weissman to the Science Exchange board. You can read Andy’s thoughts on the investment in Science Exchange here.
• O’Reilly Alpha Tech Ventures (OATV). OATV, which has internet legend Tim O’Reilly as a founding partner, has a real passion for science and has recently invested in PeerJ, an Open Access publisher of scholarly articles shaking up the world of scientific publishing. You can read OATV Managing Director Bryce Robert’s thoughts on the investment here.
• An amazing cast of angel investors and advisors including Esther Dyson (super-angel and 23andMe board member), Jeff Hammerbacher (Cloudera founder), Ellen Levy (ex LinkedIn exec), Kal Vepuri (Trisiras Group founder), Peter Lehrman (Axial founder and ex-GLG exec), Rob Hutter (Learn Capital founder), Lisa Gansky (TheMesh founder) and Joshua Schachter (Delicious and TastyLabs founder).

We’re also delighted to have the continued support, in the form of investment and/or advice, of many investors from our seed round including Lerer Ventures, XG Ventures, Crosslink Capital, Yuri Milner, Maynard Webb, Ash Patel, and Sam Altman.

The new financing will help us improve the Science Exchange platform. As we expand our engineering team, we’re excited about building more great features to make it even easier to find, access and pay for scientific services including enhancing the service search interface for researchers, and adding new storefronts for service providers. We also plan to expand our range of services to new scientific disciplines including bio-chemistry, clinical, and engineering services over the coming year.

As we move forward on our mission of democratizing access the global network of scientific resources and expertise, we’re looking to double our team in customer development and engineering. If you’re interested in joining the Science Exchange revolution, be sure to check out www.scienceexchange.com/jobs.

Onward,

~The Science Exchange Team

It’s been almost two years since we founded Science Exchange with the goal of making scientific research more efficient.

We started off as a small team: a breast-cancer biologist, a software engineer, and an economist. Stemming from our own experiences in scientific research, we sought to create a centralized marketplace which researchers could use to easily access the world’s scientific expertise.

After participating in the Y Combinator program, launching in August 2011 and raising funding from top-tier investors, we’ve grown Science Exchange to list over 4700 services at 71 of the top 100 research universities. Researchers from California State to Princeton University, the NIH to NASA, and small biotechs to large pharma, have all found and ordered services through the platform. And we’ve expanded globally, with press noted in Fast Company, Wired, Nature, and CNBC.

Now, we’re looking to take Science Exchange to the next level. We have exciting plans to continue to optimize our product platform for research customers, and bolster our service offerings to more disciplines. There are many new partnerships and initiatives in the pipeline, and are looking for talented engineers and scientists to help support us in this vision.

We’re hiring for a range of positions, from software engineers to data scientists, and customer development to community managers. If you’re interested, or may know one who is, check out our jobs page at:

https://www.scienceexchange.com/jobs

Sincerely,

~ The Science Exchange Team

In August 2012, we launched the Reproducibility Initiative as a partnership between PLOS, figshare, Mendeley, and Science Exchange- looking to identify and reward high quality reproducible research.

As the quality of research reported in the literature remains under intense scrutiny, with citation rates and independent publications not providing a robust measure for reproducibility, the Reproducibility Initiative has sought to provide a platform to rapidly and cost effectively screen studies, methods and reagents via independent replication of key experimental results.

We’ve spent the first 6 months of the Initiative building partnerships, funding relationships, and promoting awareness for the issue. We are now moving into the second phase of the Reproducibility Initiative, and will be splitting the program into two arms:

• The Reproducibility Initiative – Opt-In Option
• The Reproducibility Initiative – Validation Service
  

Our outreach over the past couple months has indicated that thousands of researchers wished to participate in the Reproducibility Initiative, but did not have the funding to pay for the validations. We have thus created an ‘Opt-In’ arm of the Reproducibility Initiative so that investigators can opt in their study for potential independent validation, should funding become available.

Already, 1,892 researchers have opted in to have their studies reproduced. We believe that opting in itself provides a valuable signal in identifying reproducible findings, and we are now approaching public, charitable, and commercial funding bodies to sponsor the validation of select studies. Any investigator can submit a publication to opt in to the Initiative in the interim, by visiting: https://www.scienceexchange.com/reproducibility

Our outreach also indicated that there are investigators at institutions and biotech companies who have the funding available for validation. To assist them in immediately validating their study, we created a ‘Validation Service’ arm to the Reproducibility Initiative.

The Validation Service will allow studies, protocols or reagents to be submitted for independent validation by expert scientific service providers in the Science Exchange network. Submitted experiments are blindly matched with an appropriate, verified provider who then reproduces the experiments on a fee-for-service basis.

All submissions will be kept confidential, with resultant data and findings kept private. Upon completion, all experimental results will be provided to the submitter who will have the option to publish the replicated results as an independent publication in the PLOS ONE Reproducibility Collection, and can share the data via the figshare Reproducibility Collection repository. The article-level impact metrics of these publications will be tracked via Mendeley’s real-time analytics platform, enabling the identification of the most robust techniques and measuring the impact of trusted reproducible work.

Any investigator can submit their study for immediate validation, by visiting: https://www.scienceexchange.com/validation

We look forward to the months ahead, as the Reproducibility Initiative expands, and the first results of the validation studies start to arrive.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Iorns, PhD

About the author

Elizabeth Iorns is Co-Founder & CEO of Science Exchange. Elizabeth conceived the idea for Science Exchange while an Assistant Professor at the University of Miami and as CEO she drives the company’s vision, strategy and growth. She is passionate about creating a new way to foster scientific collaboration that will break down existing silos, democratize access to scientific expertise and accelerate the speed of scientific discovery. Elizabeth has a B.S. in Biomedical Science from the University of Auckland, a Ph.D. in Cancer Biology from the Institute of Cancer Research in London, and conducted postdoctoral research in Cancer Biology from the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine where her research focused on identifying mechanisms of breast cancer development and progression.

Towards the aim of continually improving this process, we reached out to our user base earlier this year for their thoughts on outsourcing of experiments. Of the 160 users that responded to a 5-minute survey, we came upon some interesting insights into how research is currently outsourced and how Science Exchange could be optimized to help.

Below are some select figures from our survey, showing insights into why scientists choose to outsource, which services they tend to select, and the most important factor when selecting a service provider.

Lack of Equipment and Expertise Drive Outsourcing 

We asked our users prominently why they would choose to work with a service provider, rather than conduct an experiment themselves (respondents could select more than one option). Not surprisingly, the most common response had to do with a lack of resources.

89 respondents noted they would outsource a service because they lacked the equipment at their own lab. 82 respondents said they would work with an expert service provider because they lacked the expertise.

This matched closely with our own reasons for creating Science Exchange, which has been optimized around searching for specific equipment platforms such as Affymetrix RNA Microarray and Illumina Next Generation Sequencing.

Bioinformatics and Analysis are Commonly Outsourced 

Understanding that scientists tend to seek services they lack equipment or expertise for, we wanted to know which services they actually tend to outsource. Outside of regularly commoditized microarray and sequencing, we asked respondents to select from a range of possible service types (able to select more than one option again).

By far the most popular service selected was statistical analysis and bioinformatics (84 and 63 respondents, respectively). Also quite common were mass spectrometry (53 respondents) and microscopy (35 respondents).

One response we found interesting was clinical studies, which 49 respondents expressed interest in. While clinical studies are routinely conducted through outside experts, we were interested to find it take equal precedence as Mass Spectrometry and Microscopy services.

This was helpful for us to know, as though we already have 68 service providers bioinformatics and mass spectrometry, there was room for more clinical services. We look forward to bolstering these services in the coming year.

Location is the Most Important Factor

We lastly sought to understand for those respondents who routinely outsourced, what went into their choice of a service provider. Did they prioritize price, location, or testimonials?

The results surprised us. 68 respondents said the most important factor in selecting a vendor was the location, with a preference for local facilities (no one prioritized off-site vendors, understandably). The factors we though would take precedence, price and turn-around time, had 36 respondents and 29 responses respectively.

This was helpful for us to know, as we had been working on a new feature to help our users better find the services they needed by location. We recently launched a new ‘View by Map’ feature on our Search Results page, so users could find those facilities or labs in their own country or state.

Overall, the responses from the survey helped us to better understand our user’s needs, and re-affirm our vision for an efficient marketplace for scientific services. We look forward to continuing to optimize the platform this coming year.

In the first of our series of Science Exchange Stories this year, Toby Ward of the Stanford Cancer Institute shares his experience using the platform, and how it helped him access research equipment, and pay for scientific services outside his institution.

Science Exchange CEO Elizabeth Iorns spoke this past November at the Research 2.0 Workshop. Research 2.0 is a community initiative out of the USC School of Pharmacy that looks to promote new platforms helping academic researchers to collaborate and speed up commercialization.

Elizabeth spoke of how Science Exchange fits within this paradigm, by providing a marketplace for scientists to find specialized expertise in specific scientific disciplines, and contract out or collaborate with researchers across institutions.

You can learn more about Research 2.0, and the other platforms presenting, at the USC School of Pharmacy’s website.

Photo Credit: Nature.com

This year, Science Exchange CEO Elizabeth Iorns helped to launch the Reproducibility Initiative- collaborative program between Science Exchange, PLOS ONE, Mendeley, and figshare that offers scientists a way to validate their studies by expert providers.

The Reproducibility Initiative has been met with welcome applause from researchers and the public alike. The launch received accolades in Reuters and Slate Magazine. Initial outreach to academic studies have received a strong response as well, with 77% of respondents opting in to have their studies validated.

In recognition of her efforts with the Reproducibility Initiative then, Nature Magazine has just noted Dr. Iorns as one of their  Ten People Who Mattered in 2012.

We are truly humbled for Elizabeth to receive such an accolade, and the awareness it brings for the important issue of reproducibility in academic research.

We look forward to the new year as The Reproducibility Initiative moves into its second phase of validating select studies.

Read Nature article at: http://www.nature.com/news/366-days-nature-s-10-1.11997

Palo Alto, CA – November 5, 2012 – Core research facilities on the Science Exchange network announced today their support for those researchers affected by Hurricane Sandy.

With the hurricane affecting thousands of researchers across the Greater New York area, losing valuable enzymes, constructs, and experimental mice, the need for greater access to resources has become a concern. Core facilities, which provide specialist scientific services ranging from DNA sequencing to transgenic mouse development, have accordingly increased access to their shared resources and equipment for external use by those researchers affected.

Core facilities at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, NY have already offered their support for the initiative. “ Being in Upstate New York, we at Roswell Park Cancer Institute would like to convey our best wishes to our fellow New Yorkers and everyone that has been affected by the devastation which Hurricane Sandy imparted onto the East Coast of the USA,” said Aimee Stablewski, Director of the Gene Targeting and Transgenic Facility. “In light of this tragedy, we would like to offer to help researchers attain their goals by providing services from our Gene Targeting and Transgenic Core Resource.”

Other core facilities across from California to North Carolina have offered their support in helping those researchers affected as well.

“We stand ready to assist our colleagues devastated by this horrendous storm and help them to recover and preserve the scientific value of their resources” said Dr. Kent Lloyd, Director of the UC Davis Mouse Biology Program.

Dale Cowley, Director of the University of North Carolina Animal Models Core also offered his support. “We were saddened to hear of the loss of research animal models and other critical research reagents in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy,” said Dr. Cowley. “As our facility offers a full range of reproductive services including recovery of lines from cryopreserved embryos, we would be happy to provide our services to assist researchers in the New York City area to recover or re-create critical models for their research programs.”

Science Exchange, the online marketplace for scientific services, will be helping these core facilities to promote their services to researchers in need. The company provides an online platform for researchers to request quotes and order services from over 300 institutions, and will be waiving all of its fees to researchers affected by the hurricane through the end of the year.

“We felt that in this time of need, many researchers would be able benefit from the expertise of the facilities listed on the Science Exchange network,” said Dr. Elizabeth Iorns, co-founder and CEO of Science Exchange. “Core facilities and CROs provide access to expert specialist services in a timely and efficient manner, and could be critical to helping scientists recover their work.”

Researchers can order over 1300 services from core facilities listed on the Science Exchange network by visiting: www.scienceexchange.com

Power outages, flooding, and loss of storage has affected years of work in antibodies, enzymes, constructs, and other research material. And yesterday we learned that thousands of experimental mice were lost due to flooding at the New York University Hospital. As a former breast cancer biologist, it is heartbreaking to hear of the loss suffered by researchers in the affected areas.

To help assist wherever we can, Science Exchange will be waiving all our fees till the end of this year for anyone whose research has been affected by the hurricane. We hope this will help affected researchers, whose own institutions may be either closed or at capacity, to continue their research by accessing expert providers from our network of 300 institutions across the country.

We are also working with our network of expert providers to see if they are able to offer their services and excess resources to researchers affected by the hurricane.

For researchers working on transgenic mouse projects, we’ve already had several providers, including the Mouse Biology Program at UC Davis, the Animal Models Core at UNC Chapel Hill, and Gene Targeting and Transgenic Facility at Roswell Park, indicate their support for helping affected researchers.

We’ll be providing further updates over the coming days as we get further commitments from providers of the over 1,300 services offered on www.scienceexchange.com.

We hope this small gesture may help in this difficult time. If you have any questions, you can reach  us at support@scienceexchange.com.

–Elizabeth

UPDATE: Science crowdfunding site Microryza has started a campaign to raise money for science and research facilities at NYU Langone Medical Center that were devastated by the events of Hurricane Sandy. Microryza are waiving their normal fee so 100% of the funds raise will go directly to NYU researchers as a gift. You can donate to the fund here.

About the author

Elizabeth Iorns is Co-Founder & CEO of Science Exchange. Elizabeth conceived the idea for Science Exchange while an Assistant Professor at the University of Miami and as CEO she drives the company’s vision, strategy and growth. She is passionate about creating a new way to foster scientific collaboration that will break down existing silos, democratize access to scientific expertise and accelerate the speed of scientific discovery. Elizabeth has a B.S. in Biomedical Science from the University of Auckland, a Ph.D. in Cancer Biology from the Institute of Cancer Research in London, and conducted postdoctoral research in Cancer Biology from the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine where her research focused on identifying mechanisms of breast cancer development and progression.

The video, which was recorded in the Science Exchange office and on the Stanford campus, features a special guest appearance by Porter (one of the Science Exchange office dogs).

- Dan