June 2009 Contents

Lab Safety Revisited

This month's feature article invites you a take a walk through your lab and look at everything as though seeing it unprejudiced and honestly for the very first time. Is there unnecessary clutter? Have your lab coats outlived their usefulness? What's the condition of your lab's extension cords? This simple exercise can help you develop a keener eye toward lab safety.

Glenn Ketcham and Vince McLeod

Cross Training

When managers think of optimizing laboratory performance, they might think of buying a new instrument. But that would be overlooking something they already have—human performance optimization in the form of cross training. Such a method is becoming more common as managers need employees to be capable in a multitude of settings.

Allison Champion

Navigating Patent Inventorship Issues

Laboratory managers and team leaders, because of their knowledge of how research on a project unfolds, often play critical roles in deciding inventorship issues. Correct inventorship has to be considered whenever one or more of your staff members submit an invention disclosure to be considered for filing as a patent application.

John K. Borchardt

Avoiding Power Disturbances

Any number of variables during testing can cause inaccurate results, but most of the variables in the process can be rechecked and verified. As with most lab equipment problems, the most often overlooked is the lab's utility power source and specifically its voltage regulation.

Michael A. Stout

Certified Pre-Owned

A performance verification system assures accurate and precise data from refurbished automated liquid handlers.

Modular Lab Design

Fundamental to the process of laboratory facility planning is an understanding of some basic design principles that ensure future adaptability. While each lab type remains unique, the purposeful application of modular design, zoning of tasks and implementation of flexible planning concepts will produce the most efficient and cost-effective solutions.

Steve Hackman

The Analytical Lab as Strategic Asset

Increased visibility of laboratory operations to management can be unnerving, especially for managers who have previously been more focused on the science than the business of the laboratory. To prepare for increased exposure, managers must develop strategies to meet or exceed their organization's demands and, most important, deliver meaningful results.

Cozette Cuppett

Regulatory Compliance

Today's competitive market presents a fresh set of challenges to pharmaceutical companies. Good Practice consultants can assist those companies in achieving compliance by providing training on aspects of GMP for production and QC. They can also act as a facilitator to develop the culture that integrates other essential activities.

Mark Stevens and Tony Gasson

Engaging Your Service Partner

A strong partnership between a supplier and a lab is necessary in order for the lab to remain competitive. It is important to build that strong foundation early in the relationship, as this creates a critical path free of obstacles. Maximizing productivity, creating a learning community, and demanding quality management support will keep a lab operational and innovative.

Joachim Joerger

Science Matters

Latest Trends Shaping the Scientific Workforce

Rich Pennock

Product Focus

GC Systems

Water Purification Systems

HPLC Systems

Technology News

The latest equipment, instrument and system introductions to the laboratory market.

Lab Safety

Job Hazard Analysis

One of the cornerstones of any successful safety and health program is job hazard analysis (JHA).

Glenn Ketcham and Vince McLeod

How It Works

Simplifying Pure Water Systems

Zeta Potential Determination for Macroscopic Solid Samples

Induced Grating Technology in Particle Size Analysis

Now What?

You've Been Asked To Perform A Laboratory Quality Audit... Now What?