Glossary

Plain-English definitions for the terms you'll see across Sciencera. Three sections: biotech, blockchain, and regulatory.

Biotech & peptide science

AAALAC — Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care. Accredits animal research facilities. Shown as a quality tag on lab profiles.

AMP — Antimicrobial peptide. A short peptide with antimicrobial activity. One of the major application areas Sciencera supports.

Amino acid — The building block of peptides and proteins. There are 20 standard amino acids. The AI Lab can detect peptide sequences written in this 20-letter alphabet.

Assay — A procedure for measuring biological activity. Shown as a capability tag on lab profiles.

Biologic — A product derived from living organisms. Many peptide therapeutics fall under this category for FDA / EMA purposes.

Biopesticide — A pesticide derived from biological sources. Regulated by the EPA in the US under FIFRA. Relevant to the agriculture vertical.

CRO — Contract Research Organization. An external lab that runs experiments on behalf of a project. Sciencera's Lab Marketplace is built around them.

GLP — Good Laboratory Practice. Quality system for nonclinical lab studies. Often called "OECD GLP."

GMP — Good Manufacturing Practice. Quality system for production.

GVP — Good Veterinary Practice. The veterinary analog of GLP.

IND — Investigational New Drug. The application a sponsor submits to the FDA before starting a clinical trial. Sciencera does not file INDs; it produces structured evidence a sponsor may reference when filing.

IP-NFT — IP as a tokenized, transferable asset. Represents a specific intellectual property right (patent family, licensing terms, jurisdictions, owner). Planned for Sciencera in a later stage.

Mechanism of action (MoA) — How a drug produces its effect at the molecular or cellular level. A structured field in the proposal wizard.

ORCID — A persistent identifier for researchers. Optional in the proposal identity step and a planned trust signal for reviewer onboarding.

Peptide — A short chain of amino acids (typically fewer than 50). The unit of discovery for the Open Peptide Translation Network.

Residue — A single amino acid within a peptide.

Vertical — One of the six regulated application domains Sciencera handles natively: human health, veterinary, agriculture, aquaculture, industrial, cosmetics.

Blockchain & DeSci

Base58 — The encoding format for Solana addresses. Strings of 43-44 characters that look like GK...x1Y. This is what your wallet displays as "your address."

DeSci — Decentralized science. The movement to use blockchain primitives for funding, IP, and coordination of scientific work. Sciencera is DeSci-aligned but compliance-first.

Fingerprint (proof hash) — A short, opaque cryptographic stand-in for content. Sciencera uses SHA-256 (32 bytes). Two pieces of identical content produce identical fingerprints; even a single-character change produces a completely different fingerprint. This is how we make tampering detectable.

Mainnet — Solana's production blockchain. The real one with real value.

Devnet — Solana's staging blockchain. For testing without spending real money.

Multisig — A wallet that requires multiple signers to authorize an action. Sciencera uses multisigs for admin authority on mainnet so no single person can unilaterally change the system.

Network token — A blockchain-native token tied to network usage. Sciencera's network token is a future stage, gated on real network usage existing first.

Project token — A token representing participation or fractional governance in a specific Sciencera project. Issued only after scientific, rights, and compliance gates.

SCI Credits — Sciencera's pre-launch reward credits, awarded for Academy completion and contribution. Pool-limited, claim-based, tamper-evident.

Solana — The blockchain Sciencera runs on. Fast, low-fee, well-suited for high-volume on-chain receipts.

Soulbound — Non-transferable. A soulbound credential cannot be sold or moved to another wallet. Sciencera's reputation credentials are soulbound by design — there's no transfer instruction in the program at all.

TGE — Token Generation Event. The moment a token is first minted and distributable. Sciencera's TGE is gated on real network usage.

Wallet — Your identity and signing tool on a blockchain. Sciencera supports Phantom, Solflare, Torus, and Ledger.

Regulatory shorthand

BPOM — Indonesia's drug, food, and cosmetics regulator (Badan Pengawas Obat dan Makanan).

EMA — European Medicines Agency.

EPA — US Environmental Protection Agency. Regulates biopesticides under FIFRA.

FDA — US Food and Drug Administration.

FIFRA — Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act. The US law governing pesticides, including biopesticides.

GCP / ICH-GCP — Good Clinical Practice. The international standard for clinical trial conduct.

GDPR — General Data Protection Regulation. The EU's personal data privacy law.

HIPAA — The US law governing protected health information.

MoCRA — Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act. The current US framework for cosmetic facility registration and safety.

21 CFR Part 11 — The FDA's rule on electronic records and signatures. Sciencera borrows its discipline: tamperproof fingerprints, signed actions, audit trails.

USDA — US Department of Agriculture.

Sciencera-specific

Academy — Sciencera's training module: 4 tracks, a task bank, and credentials.

Application Hub — The future module for clinical, field, veterinary, and other real-world trials.

Content URI — The pointer (an IPFS, Arweave, or HTTPS link) stored on chain alongside the fingerprint. Resolves to the full off-chain payload.

Drafts off chain — A core principle. The blockchain has no concept of a draft — only submitted, under review, etc. Drafts stay private.

Feedback Loop — The future module for ingesting post-market data back into the network.

OPTN — Open Peptide Translation Network. The full name Sciencera carries.

Reputation credential — A non-transferable on-chain record of verified work or training. Issued by an authorized issuer.

Research Registry — The on-chain program that anchors proposals and their status transitions.

Translation — The verb Sciencera centers on. Moving peptides from lab to real-world application across regulated verticals.

Acronyms quick reference

Where to go next

• Overview — vision and modules
• How it works — the pieces in plain terms
• Features — what's live in the app today
• Compliance — the regulatory surface in detail