Lab managers make no secret of their desire for a bigger serving of commitment and cooperation from their staff scientists and technicians. However, dealing with such highly trained and knowledgeable workers can prove challenging. Managers need to create environments in which their staff can become energized, motivated, cooperative, and committed.

It wasn’t so long ago that we lived in a world without such convenient ways to communicate and interact with others in both our personal and professional lives. 

Basic etiquette, like good safety practices, requires training and reinforcement

Tips for evaluating and implementing the right electronic lab notebook (ELN)

What lab managers need to consider when beginning a project

Hardware, maintenance, and training requirements for safety showers and eyewash stations

Microplate handlers are specialized robotic devices that transfer microtiter plates in three-dimensional space from one location within a workflow to another. The “locations” are actually operations such as solvent addition (through liquid handling), aspiration, heating, shaking, incubation, washing, reading, and storage.

Vacuum pumps are an essential piece of equipment and are used in a wide variety of processes in most laboratories. Over the past 25 years, it has become apparent that vendors have made significant innovative improvements to vacuum pumps, with important developments in high vacuum technology, corrosion resistance, vacuum control, and improvements in the efficiency and ecological impact of vacuum pumps.

Chromatography data systems (CDSs)— the data “back end” for gas, liquid, ion, and supercritical fluid analytical chromatography—have evolved over the decades from simple chart recorders to onboard processors with minimal storage and analysis to personal computerbased and, finally, to connectivity with “peer” instruments and supervisory software systems.

Through research, testing, care, and education, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, located in Houston, Texas, takes an integrative approach to cancer. We speak with Pramila Sood, lab administrator for the Department of Laboratory Medicine, about the unique management issues at the Center.

When to upgrade your mass spectrometer (MS) varies from user to user but there are a few main indicators that are common to many situations, the experts say.

The latest equipment, instrument, and system introductions to the laboratory market.

Problem: ELISA assays are a workhorse assay used in pharmaceutical research and molecular diagnostic labs. This assay can be a high-volume service area for contract labs. However, many IVD labs and CROs have difficulty in costeffectively scaling their ELISA workflow to meet customer demand. This simple assay becomes deceptively complex: time sensitive steps and subtle workflow changes between different tests can be challenging to process as throughput increases. Reagent costs can cut further into tight operating margins. At some point manual processing becomes too challenging from an IVD compliance and operational perspective. Automating the laboratory’s workflow is the answer—but it can seem difficult to implement and expensive.