Dashing Growth Curves – a web application for rapid and interactive analysis of microbial growth curves

Background Recording and analyzing microbial growth is a routine task in the life sciences. Microplate readers that record dozens to hundreds of growth curves simultaneously are increasingly used for this task, raising the demand for their rapid and reliable analysis. Results Here, we present Dashing Growth Curves, an interactive web application (http://dashing-growth-curves.ethz.ch/) that enables researchers to quickly visualize and analyze growth curves without coding knowledge and independent of operating system. Growth curves can be fitted with Logistic or Gompertz growth models, or manually by selecting the linear growth phase in a logarithmic plot. Furthermore, Dashing Growth Curves automatically groups replicate samples and generates downloadable plots for extracted growth parameters such as growth rate or lag time. Conclusions Dashing Growth Curves is an open-source web application that reduces the time required to analyze microbial growth curves from hours to minutes.