Lab Manager | Run Your Lab Like a Business

Cover Story |  Volume 5 - Issue 2  |  February/March 2010

Moving Forward

Second annual investment confidence report reveals cautious optimism

Sections

Surveys

Moving Forward

Our second annual confidence survey reveals a growing optimism about the future and indicates that companies and organizations now have a better understanding of where they are and what they need to accomplish to begin moving forward again.

Leadership and Staffing

Communicating a Vision

Taking the time to initiate a small goal like creating a vision is the first step toward creating a better team, a stronger workforce, and entrepreneurial thinkers. This crucial step initiates the beginning of a transformation within yourself and a larger effect on the group you lead.

Refereeing Research Papers

Your research staff can play a role in the peer process by participating as referees for manuscripts. What are the advantages and disadvantages of doing so?

Science Matters: Want Your Workforce to Thrive? Innovate!

As scientists around the globe research cures and treatments for diseases, work to increase the data capacities of the information superhighway, and develop methods to clean the environment, they must also take time to contemplate the future of their industry, especially after the economic downturn of 2009.

Laboratory Technology

Sharing the Workload

Cross-training your staff is essential in ensuring that your lab's workload be carried out without any hiccups and that samples move smoothly through your workflow. It also gives analysts a chance to master characterization techniques that may complement those they currently use.

Improving Sample Throughput

CompuChem, a division of Liberty Analytical based in Cary, North Carolina, recently improved sample delivery, measurement protocol and rinse-out times by coupling a rapid sampling system with an ICP-MS system, reducing the time required to analyze a typical CLP sample by 80 percent.

IKA Batch Mill

Batch mill with single-use milling vessels enables serial testing to be carried out under reproducible conditions.

Miele PG8527 Glassware Washer

Miele PG8527 Glassware Washer

Cleans hundreds of pieces of glassware, using minimal water, detergent and electricity.

Metrohm USA Titrators

Automatically recognizes sample additions.

February/March 2010 Pittcon Technology News

This article features the newest technology that will be showcased at Pittcon 2010.

Lab Health and Safety

Separation Anxiety

Here is a statistic that jumped out at me recently: improper storage of chemicals accounts for nearly 25 percent of all chemical accidents. Why is that? This is a sad statistic, given that all these accidents are entirely preventable, yet they continue to happen despite the availability of numerous and excellent resources just a few keystrokes away.

Ask the Expert

Setting up a High-Throughput Screening Laboratory

Dr. Hakim Djaballah, director of the High-Throughput Screening (HTS) Core Facility at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, talks about his experiences setting up a screening lab in an academic environment.

Business Management

Selling Ideas to Upper Management

Effectively selling your ideas and those of your staff members to upper management is often what separates good lab managers from great ones. Failure to accomplish this is the main reason excellent ideas fall by the wayside. To sell ideas, you need to tap into the same creativity you and your staff used to conceive them.

Managing Through Challenging Times

Laboratories face an uncertain future of more work, fewer resources, more bureaucracy, less discretionary time, more data reporting requirements and fewer experienced people with the knowledge to handle these issues. What does this mean for lab managers?

Lab Product

Evolution of Gas Chromatography

Gas chromatography (GC) dates back to the first experiments of Mikhail Tsvet separating plant pigments using paper chromatography in 1903

Product Focus

Product Focus: Glove Boxes

Glove boxes differ from other safety enclosures in two significant respects: users can introduce articles into glove boxes and manipulate them inside through ports fitted with gloves, and glove boxes typically use a specialized atmosphere.

Automated, High-Precision Quantitation of Known Chemicals

Titration is a common laboratory operation for quantifying chemicals or reagents, usually in aqueous solution.

Product Focus: TOC Analyzers

A mainstay of environmental and quality control chemistry, total organic carbon (TOC) analysis measures the carbon content of dissolved and particulate organic materials in water.

Research-Specific Labs

Perspective On: A Mobile Training Lab

Launched in 2006 in part to solidify North Carolina's standing as a national biotech hub, the BioNetwork mobile laboratory is outfitted with life science workstations, specialized equipment, and experienced faculty.

How it Works

How it Works: Production of 3D Cell Cultures

3D Biotek developed a Fabrication Program with Microsoft .NET technology that accepts as input basic parameters of the scaffold, such as the outer dimensions and pore size.

How it Works: Managing R&D Data

Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS) are essential tools for managing data for QA/QC/Process labs throughout the chemical and petroleum industries.

How HPLC Core-Shell Particle Technologies Work

Kinetex core-shell HPLC particle technologies provide a high-efficiency, low-pressure solution for laboratories looking to increase productivity and decrease costs without investing in a UHPLC system.