A better way to manage lab media. Meet PhotoBank

The hidden chaos behind lab images

A pathology slide from a breast cancer tissue section. A microscopy snapshot from cell culture monitoring. A gel electrophoresis image saved after a long PCR day. Photos of animal cages, plates, tube racks, or unusual results captured on the fly.

At first, it feels fine. Images sit on the microscope computer, in folders, or under project names. Some go to shared drives. Others are duplicated “just in case.”

Then the lab grows. And one day, a simple question becomes a search mission: “Where is the image from that experiment?”

Not today’s image. The one from last month. The breast tissue slide. The PCR gel from experiment D101. The microscopy image showing that unusual morphology before repeating the treatment.

Everyone remembers it. Nobody knows where it is.

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Three real lab situations where folders start to fail

“We found the image, but what is it?”

You recognize the image, but not the story behind it.

Without sample, experiment, or context, a microscopy or pathology image is just a file. So you end up digging through notes, emails, or asking around to understand it.

“It’s probably on the microscope computer”

Images start on acquisition machines, but often stay there.

Over time, these computers turn into messy archives. Files are scattered, naming is inconsistent, and no one is sure if the image was copied elsewhere.

The file exists. Finding it is the problem.

“Which version should we use?”

Images get edited, cropped, and reused.

Now you have multiple versions, original, edited, “final,” and “final_v2.” During reports or reviews, no one is fully sure which one is correct.

And “probably the right one” is not good enough.

Where LabCollector's PhotoBank fits

PhotoBank gives lab media a dedicated place inside LabCollector.

Instead of keeping images scattered across local computers, USB drives, and shared folders, teams can store and organize them in structured galleries. For example, a lab can create galleries for cancer histology, PCR images, animal photos, microscopy projects, or any other media category.

The point is not just storage. Labs already have storage. The point is to make images easier to find, understand, and reuse.

With PhotoBank, teams can organize images and videos by project, experiment, or category. They can add descriptions, comments, and metadata. They can also link media directly to LabCollector data, so images stay connected to the samples, experiments, or records they belong to.

PhotoBank also includes a Windows uploader utility. This is useful because many images are created on specific source computers, such as microscope workstations or gel imaging systems.

Instead of manually copying files into folders and hoping they are moved later, users can upload them directly into PhotoBank. That helps reduce scattered storage and keeps lab media organized from the start.

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When should a lab consider PhotoBank?

A lab should consider PhotoBank when image search becomes a recurring problem.

If your team often asks where an image is stored, which version is correct, who has the original, or what sample a picture belongs to, the issue is no longer only about files. It is about traceability.

PhotoBank helps move lab media from “somewhere in a folder” to “organized, searchable, and connected to the right lab data.”

Ready to organize your lab media?

Your lab images should not disappear into folders, local computers, and USB drives.

With PhotoBank, your team can store, organize, search, and connect lab media directly inside LabCollector, from pathology pictures and microscopy snapshots to gels, animal photos, and experiment videos.