About the desk · New York, NY es / pt / fr

a lamp, a glossary, and the sound of a clause read aloud.

Past noon in upper Manhattan.A consent form lies open,pencilled in three languages.This is where it is carried.

Gentian Lane is a translation and localization desk for life-science teams. Small on purpose, so the person who reads your protocol is still the person who signs the certificate.

Or call the desk: (650) 847-8235 · Mon–Fri 11am–4pm

  • We write for
  • sponsors
  • CROs
  • biotech regulatory teams
  • IRB & ethics filings
A desk by a tall window with a marked-up consent form and a single blue flower in a glass
01 — Why a small desk

a flower that opens only in full light

“Nothing in your document should need shade.”

Most translation companies are built to move words. We were built to move meaning, and meaning is slower.

A patient in San Juan, São Paulo or Lyon will read your consent form once, tired, perhaps with a child asleep on the sofa. No one will explain it to her. The page has to do all the explaining, in her words, at her pace.

One document.Two translators who never compare notes.One reader who says aloud where it snags.One signature at the end.

Gentian Lane works only in life science and only in three languages: Spanish, Portuguese and French. The narrowness is the point. Terminology for a Phase II oncology protocol is learned once, written into a glossary, and held for every amendment that follows.

We work from a desk at West 136th Street, Monday to Friday, eleven to four. Quotes are written, per project, and invoiced once.

02 — How the desk thinks

four habits we refuse to drop

Habit one

the locale is named

Not “Spanish.” es-US for a clinic in the Bronx, es-ES for a site in Madrid, fr-CA for Montréal. The quote says which, and the text is written to it.

Habit two

every sentence has a paper trail

Forward, reconcile, back-translate, debrief, sign. Each stage is named and dated, so when QA asks how a line reached its final form, the file answers.

Habit three

patients read it aloud

Plan B work is tested with native readers. If a phrase makes someone wonder about a colour instead of a mood, it goes back to the page.

Habit four

we say no to a fourth language

Three languages done well beat eleven done thinly. When a project needs another, we send you to a desk we would trust with our own forms.

03 — A Tuesday at the desk

eleven to four, in order

The hours are short because the reading is slow. Here is how a typical consent form moves through them.

  • The inbox opens. New files are counted by the word and a quote is drafted in writing.
  • Glossaries are checked against the sponsor’s previous amendments.
  • Reconciliation: two translations become one, sentence by sentence, with reasons noted in the margin.
  • Calls with native readers for the cognitive debrief.
  • The desk closes. Anything unfinished waits for morning rather than being rushed.
04 — Before your first call

what to put on the table

A first conversation takes twenty minutes. These five things make it shorter.

  • 1
    the source fileWord, PDF or InDesign. A draft is fine; a version number helps.
  • 2
    the localesWhich countries your patients live in, not just which language.
  • 3
    the date sites openWe work back from it and tell you plainly if it can’t be done.
  • 4
    any template or glossaryYour CRO’s format, previous translations, approved terms.
  • 5
    the agency or IRBFDA, EMA, a Canadian REB: it shapes the certificate we issue.
The first line

leave the first line. we’ll write the rest.

(650) 847-8235

Mon–Fri 11am–4pm, Eastern · info@gentianlane.com · 512 W 136Th St Apt 5A, New York, NY 10031

send the brief
Call (650) 847-8235Get a quote