SeroWare: An Open-Source Software Suite for Voltammetry Data Acquisition and Analysis.

Abstract

Voltammetry is widely used for fast, data-dense measurements of redox-active analytes in versatile environments, including the brain. Voltammetry requires minimal hardware beyond a potentiostat, a front-end amplifier, and a computer. Nonetheless, researchers must often develop or modify software packages for application-specific uses. Of the voltammetry software available, significant issues exist with source code inaccessible for updating or customization, nonconfigurable data processing procedures, and hardware incompatibilities. These limitations, coupled with the recent proliferation of waveform types and increased demands for high bandwidth data acquisition and efficient data processing, create the need for sophisticated, powerful, and flexible voltammetry software. We report developing "SeroWare", an open-source, end-to-end voltammetry acquisition and analysis software package designed to handle a wide variety of use cases encountered by voltammetry users. Although inspired by neurochemical analyses, this software is flexible, customizable, and compatible with open-source toolkits. The modular software architecture enables users to generate, acquire, and analyze voltammetry data of different types, ranging from pulse and sweep waveforms to fast and slow scans via easily accessible and exportable file formats. Template code is provided for communicating with a variety of standard external devices. We report several novel features for waveform applications and data flow. In-depth documentation in a User Guide and video tutorials are provided to enable new research directions, particularly regarding shareability and lowering the barriers to entry for new investigators.