Benchling

Benchling is a cloud platform for life sciences R&D built around an electronic lab notebook (ELN), molecular biology tools for designing and tracking DNA and protein sequences, and a registry for managing samples, reagents, and inventory across experiments. It replaces paper notebooks and scattered spreadsheets with a system that ties experimental data, sequence design, and results together in one place, and it adds workflow and LIMS-style modules for labs that need to track samples through automated pipelines rather than just record observations.

It's aimed at biotech and pharma R&D teams, especially in cell and gene therapy, synthetic biology, and biologics, where scientists need to design constructs, run experiments, and document everything in a way that holds up to internal review or regulatory audit. Academic and smaller biotech labs use it too, but its permissioning, audit trails, and validation support are built with GxP and FDA-regulated environments in mind, which is where it differs most from general-purpose lab notebook or data management tools.

What sets Benchling apart is the breadth of the platform: it's not just a digital notebook but a connected system spanning notebook, registry, sequence design, and workflow/LIMS features, so data generated in one module (say, a plasmid design) flows into experiments and inventory tracking without manual re-entry. It has become one of the more widely adopted platforms in biotech R&D informatics, used by many gene and cell therapy companies and large pharma R&D groups, which also means it has a mature ecosystem of integrations and APIs for connecting to lab instruments and other software.