Do you ever feel like you have hit a dead end in your career? Are you too busy attending to staff and their projects to even imagine a life beyond the lab bench?

Mastering the technique of selling ideas to upper management is not just a vital part of your responsibilities as a lab manager. “[Selling your ideas] has the potential of providing you with opportunities for professional growth and career advancement,” says Glen Fine, chief executive officer at Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (and a former lab manager).

Labs of all kinds need standards, but they must be the right standards. Good standards are neither goals nor quotas that we will try to reach, but rather rules of behavior that we will follow every day, every time.

The concept of a “diverse” workplace gained traction in the ’80s and ’90s, but it was framed largely in cultural and sociological terms.

In the history of technology, The Manhattan Project and the United States space program are considered two of the most stellar accomplishments of the American scientific research enterprise. Both were challenge-driven research and development endeavors—and both employed multidisciplinary teams.

Maintaining a leak-free GC or GC-MS system is critical for obtaining optimal system performance with reliable, reproducible, and accurate results.

Laboratories use large volumes of water to fuel the vast majority of daily research, analysis, and processing applications—from autoclave feeds and buffer preparation to molecular biology, analytical analyses, and cell culture work.

This month, we highlight companies that will be exhibiting at two upcoming scientific trade shows–the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists’ Annual Meeting and Exposition (AAPS 2014) and the Society for Neuroscience’s Annual Meeting (Neuroscience 2014). AAPS 2014 takes place at the San Diego Convention Center from November 2-6 and offers pharmaceutical scientists the opportunity to network with others in their field and check out the latest pharma equipment. Neuroscience 2014 will run November 15-19 in Washington, DC, allowing neuroscientists to present emerging science, learn from experts, forge collaborations with peers, explore new tools and technologies, and advance careers.

Derek Wachtel, scientist in the DMPK department at Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, and Mingliang Bao, PhD, senior scientist at Labstat International ULC, talk to contributing editor Tanuja Koppal, PhD, regarding various issues they face with sample prep in their laboratories. They both stress that sample prep is very important and a necessary step in any analysis and with newer technologies making it easier and faster to accomplish, there should be no reason to ignore or overlook it.

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.

Standard refrigerators should not be used for storage of flammable or reactive chemicals.

Spectroscopy can cover a range of wavelengths, and this article focuses on the ultraviolet (UV) and visible (Vis) spectra, with a bit of near-infrared (NIR) too. These ranges allow for many applications as well as a variety of technologies.

Scientists developed vacuum pumps—and their cousins—centuries ago. Until relatively recently, though, the instruments didn’t include many controls.

Although the electronic laboratory notebook (ELN) market is mature, it has undergone several cycles during the past three decades. This existential back-and-forth has centered on whether ELNs should primarily serve as direct replacements for paper notebooks or something more.

Method transfer between HPLC and UHPLC has been a standard complaint against high-pressure, sub-two-micron technology. Despite the accumulation of application notes from UHPLC vendors, end users continue to cite method transfer difficulties for not switching to UHPLC.

Each day involves something new at the McCrone Associates microanalysis lab.

Water is the most commonly used laboratory reagent; however, the importance of water quality is often overlooked. Because impurities can be a critical factor in many research experiments, water purity ranks high in importance. There are several types of impurities and contaminants in water such as particulates, organics, inorganics, microorganisms and pyrogens that can adversely affect results. 

Achieving water of a high quality requires the careful use of purification technologies and a method for accurately measuring and monitoring contaminants.

If the voluminous patent filings for new compressors, refrigerants, insulation, and power management are any indication, refrigeration technology is one of the most-researched engineering topics affecting lab operations.

Problem: The assessment of cell concentration and viability is an important step in the characterization of cell health. This information can be used for monitoring proliferation rates, optimizing growth conditions and normalizing cell data for further studies, such as assessing the impacts of cytotoxic compounds.

Current methods rely on multiple, sometimes complex, instrument platforms to provide these answers, reducing flexibility and increasing research costs. Other, simpler methods provide inconsistent results due to their dependence on single-uptake dyes, which do not effectively discriminate between the various states of cell demise. As a result, there is a crucial need for analytical methods that efficiently provide reproducible count and viability data.

Problem: In recent years, cell biology has included more emphasis on the study of rapid movement inside live cells: its dynamics, mechanisms, electrochemical signaling and protein transport. To capture these events while avoiding image artifacts, frame rates must be high enough to accurately sample these cellular phenomena. Depending on the event, these rates can range from 20 to several thousand frames per second with exposure times well below 100ms.

Problem: Research, QA/QC, and other laboratories ranging from large enterprise facilities to small analytical service centers are under increasing pressure to reduce costs and increase efficiency, productivity, and  quality. To reduce operating costs, lab managers know they must find ways to speed turn-around and maximize throughput. To improve productivity and quality, it’s essential for them to easily access information that will allow them to efficiently staff the laboratory, allocate assets, and optimize workflows while adhering to strict quality standards and ensuring regulatory compliance.

Educating users on proper technique is essential to avoiding pipette neglect

The new Agilent 1290 Infinity II LC System embodies the next generation of UHPLC – with the exceptional reliability and robustness you expect from Agilent, plus breakthrough technologies to maximize the efficiency of your business in three dimensions.

INTEGRA has announced a software update for its VIAFLO II electronic pipette range that now features a full-text, multilingual user interface in English, German, French, Spanish, Japanese and Chinese.

Integrating an INTEGRA VIAFLO 96 multichannel pipette into their high throughput expression facility has enabled Molecular Partners (Zurich, Switzerland) to streamline the discovery and development of a novel class of targeted protein therapeutics termed DARPins.