It is not news that the research workplace has changed considerably over the past decade. As with many businesses, laboratories have come under pressure to generate better results with ever greater efficiency.

By now we all know that the life sciences industry is radically changing

As a consultant and professor, I see it all of the time. Organizations are structured to fail. We make it almost impossible for some people to succeed. One simple example (which we can detail in another article) is mixing short term and long term oriented groups under one manager.

Managing culturally diverse teams

Analysis, elbow grease, and legwork can bring in new business at little or no cost

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.

Respiratory protection basics

For too many years at academic institutions and some companies, health, safety, and the environment have been something extra. It's time that they become part of the process. 

For David Hemmig, director of equipment sales at Matheson Tri-Gas (Basking Ridge, NJ), the key word in on-site gas generation is reliability. He explains that a major problem with gas generators that incorporate some sort of compressor is that eventually that component fails.

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.

According to a report from Persistence Market Research, Mass Spectrometry Technologies Market Assessment Report—Global Size, Share, Competitive Landscape, Future Prospects and Forecast from 2013-2017, mass spectrometry (MS) is one of the few instrumentation markets that has recovered fully from the last recession.

The ease of adding ketchup from a squeeze bottle to an order of French fries, the trouble that it takes to press toothpaste out of a tube, and many other common needs depend on viscosity.

Despite being available for close to 30 years, laboratory information management systems (LIMSs) are about to undergo a metamorphosis characterized by greater utility, accessibility, and availability–at lower cost.

Situated in rural Weyauwega, Wisconsin, the Agropur Dairy Cooperative plant continues the rich cheese-making tradition of the state through its production of both cheddar and feta cheese.

Imaging encompasses a wide range of techniques that enable visualization of hidden features of samples, structures, or organisms. Imaging occurs at many scales, from medical magnetic resonance imaging of patients to individual atoms. This INSIGHTS on Imaging Systems focuses on the lower end of size domains in the typical operating range of—but not limited to—microscopy.

Freezers and refrigerators are an integral part of any laboratory that requires temperature controlled storage.

Electronic laboratory notebooks (ELNs), one component of a lab’s information infrastructure, help laboratories capture and manage knowledge, streamline data management, protect intellectual property and foster collaboration. Both non-specific/generic ELNs (which compete directly against paper notebooks) & application/task-specific ELNs exist, each with their own fans.

Pipettes can be found in almost every laboratory and, if you’re looking to buy one, there are many options— manual or electronic, single or multi-channel. Luckily, a few main considerations can help in deciding whether or not to buy the latest pipette technology. 

“It’s extremely important that the user keeps an eye on the status of the rotor, maintains it properly, cleans it, and prevents aggressive chemicals from getting in,” product manager says

Assays using immortalized cell lines and plastic labware have been used for decades as an in-vitro mimic of how a putative drug may work in the human body. 

Antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) is an important target for antibody-derived biopharmaceuticals, allowing the controlled targeting and destruction of tumor, virus-infected or other diseased cells. Promega’s ADCC Reporter Bioassayoffers a convenient way of assessing ADCC using frozen, thaw-and-use effector and target cells, eliminating the need for cell culture maintenance.