Well Plate Maker: a user-friendly randomized block design application to limit batch effects in large-scale biomedical studies

Many factors can influence results in clinical research, in particular bias in the distribution of samples prior to biochemical preparation. Well Plate Maker is a user-friendly application to design single- or multiple-well plate assays. It allows multiple group experiments to be randomized and therefore helps to reduce possible batch effects. Although primarily fathered to optimize the design of clinical sample analysis by high throughput mass spectrometry (e.g. proteomics or metabolomics), it includes multiple options to limit edge-of-plate effects, to incorporate control samples or to limit cross-contamination. It thus fits the constraints of many experimental fields.