For many labs, automation provides the biggest return on sample preparation because it’s the key time-consuming bottleneck for many processes.

Artel, the leader in liquid handling quality assurance, announced today that the Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS) and Artel are working together to produce a conference short course for the 2015 annual meeting in Washington, D.C. “Liquid Handling Essentials – A Hands-on Workshop Bridging Fundamental Concepts to Practice,” will be presented on Saturday, February 7 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

The concept of lab automation sounds almost magical, as if a sophisticated machine here or there makes a lab run by itself. Indeed, automation can improve the efficiency of a lab and more, but figuring out the best “here” or “there” creates the challenge.

Malvern Instruments has released new guidance on using automated image analysis to detect and quantify agglomerates. The ability of uncontrolled agglomeration to substantially impact the performance and value of powder products makes efficient agglomerate detection vital across a number of industries.

Multichannel pipettes are invaluable when working with multiwell plates. However, prolonged and repetitive pipetting sessions bear the risk of strain and fatigue, often resulting in repetitive strain injuries (RSI) and less reproducible results.

SLAS2015 is fast-approaching, taking place February 7-11 in Washington, DC.

Key laboratories worldwide contribute to collaboration.

Every year, we see research facilities moving toward more automation, and recent issues of Lab Manager highlight some of the newest equipment on the market. Many laboratory tasks are labor-intensive and the sheer number of tasks performed, such as washing and sterilizing containers and installing and disposing samples and wastes, are becoming too time-consuming. Thus, complex equipment, such as sonicators, washers, autoclaves, and autosamplers, is becoming a necessity and is much more prevalent.

Registration for SLAS2015 is now live. Be sure to join the Society and 5,000 of your peer researchers, scientists, engineers and academic professionals in Washington, DC for this fourth annual conference and exhibition dedicated to scientific technology and automation.

Problem: A laboratory scientist’s time is extremely precious, with a multitude of tasks to complete in order to produce meaningful data. With the vast majority of drug discovery research facilities and a growing number of academic laboratories now utilizing automated workflows, it is essential that they can be designed and set up with ease, regardless of their complexity.

Problem: Molecular biology relies on the ability to precisely target and amplify nucleic acids, and next-generation sequencing (NGS) platforms and cloning reactions benefit from precise size selection and analytical characterization of samples. For decades, researchers have used electrophoresis with agarose gels for both size selection and fragment-length distribution assessment of DNA samples for downstream assays.

Equipment for dispensing and aspirating liquids runs the gamut from handheld pipettes that cost less than $100 to mid-range benchtop units to complex, fully robotic systems that cost $1 million or more.