Steve Thomas, an investigator within the Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics department at GSK, talks to contributing editor Tanuja Koppal, PhD, about his experiences implementing a database of
metabolic knowledge that helps the company store, share, and search data around the globe. The process involved analyzing internal needs, evaluating several options, and finding the right informatics solution to give GSK scientists access to each other’s findings to prevent error, repetition, or inefficiency.

Life scientists started using microplates in the 1950s, with some of the first ones literally machined from solid blocks of plastic. You don’t need to wander around a molecular biology lab long today to see the progress in microplates, some now including thousands of wells.

Latest mobile offerings deliver greater efficiency, security, and compliance

Modern military defense planning is already heavily focused on how to gain strategic advantage through brainpower. Another significant step in that direction could result from an Arizona State University engineer’s new research on using cognitive abilities to control defense operations in more direct ways than ever.

As of January 1, 2014, Newport Electronics, Inc. has merged into Omega Engineering, Inc. NEWPORT has been a leader in high-precision test, measurement, process control and automation instrumentation for more than four decades. NEWPORT began manufacturing electronic instrumentation in 1965 and quickly earned a reputation for designing and building the world’s most accurate industrial instrumentation.

Researchers are programming robots to communicate with people using human-like body language and cues, an important step toward bringing robots into homes

Supercomputer Center to provide expertise to researchers across all domains.

Analytical and QA/QC labs, under ever-increasing pressure to improve time to market, ensure compliance and realize cost savings, now have an all-inclusive informatics solution that gives them complete control over their methods and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) without having to purchase, integrate and validate software from multiple vendors.

Microplate handlers are the robotic “glue” that unifies operations around a microplate workflow. The
 evolution of robotics and software has caused a “democratization” of lab automation in general, and microplate handlers in particular.

Proof-of-concept study could soon allow analysis of early earth chemistry on meteorites and other rocks.

For businesses, the costs of food and beverage recalls are significant and extend far beyond the hard costs of pulling product off shelves and scrapping inventory. Erosion of consumer confidence and loss of brand equity have consequences that are much farther-reaching and infinitely more costly.

Microplate readers are widely used in research, drug discovery, bioassay validation, QC, and manufacturing processes for the detection of biological, chemical, or physical processes in samples contained in microtiter plates.