Overcoming physical, mechanical barriers

Pipette calibration begins with a reliable analytical balance

Bugs as products or production engines

The most significant equipment-related trend in bioprocessing over the past 15 years has been the replacement of reusable glass and steel equipment by single-use plastics.

Key differences between PCR and qPCR

Manufacturers share advice on ensuring contaminant-free glassware 

Cell culture today presents a subtle paradox. Coaxing cells to produce biopharmaceuticals, vitamins, and industrial products requires inserting foreign genes and adapting cells to artificial growth conditions.

The number and types of cell-based assays (CBAs) are as diverse as a cell’s observable biochemical activity.

The quest for effective solid-state refrigeration has led to many near misses, yet engineers continue to investigate

Most drug discovery efforts begin with a biological target—the molecule inside the body whose activity the drug is expected to enhance or diminish. Assurance that the target is pharmacologically accessible and responsible in some way for the disease in question is based on target validation studies.

Automated liquid handlers have become indispensable by virtue of freeing operators for other tasks while providing consistency and reproducibility.

Centrifuges used in blood banks and clinical settings are identical in function to those found in chemistry or biology labs, but methods and objectives may differ significantly depending on the end use.

Within the past few years, genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics have created new disciplines within biology while inspiring the creation of techniques and methods that take life science analytics to new levels of sensitivity, specificity and understanding.

Renewed interest in cell biology has created the need for techniques that efficiently disrupt cells’ outer membranes while sparing their contents.

To most lab workers, even those who spend much of their days at or near fume hoods, these safety enclosures are part of the furniture or infrastructure. A hood is a hood is a hood—except when processes require special services or utilities. While many hoods are indeed production-level, off-the-shelf products, almost any productivity- or safety-enhancing feature may be added to standard models.