CURRENT ISSUE | VOLUME 5 - ISSUE 4 | May 2010
COVER STORY
Q is for Quality
Management's role in the continuous improvement process
Laboratory Technology
Produces a constant and reliable source of ultrapure water for Dionex IC systems.
Features a virtually unbreakable non-glass silicon chip sensor that gives stable readings in seconds.
Looped HEPA Filtration (CO2 & Air) creates ISO Class 5 Air Quality.
The latest equipment, instruments and system introductions to the laboratory market.
A new 12-year-rated UPS battery has a smaller carbon footprint but, equally important, will be ready to supply clean power when instruments and other automated test equipment are exposed to utility power problems.
Lab managers will face an increasing challenge in the next decade managing a rising tide of data. To realize the full benefit and value of these diverse and voluminous data requires effective data management techniques, institutional arrangements, and policies.
The NIH recently published its annual report on funding levels for various research, condition, and disease categories. Since the NIH is a government institution, it should come as no surprise that the biggest changes came in areas that have been the subject of fierce political debate, the most volatile area of which being stem cell research.
Purchasing Guides
Lab Product
The laboratory centrifuge is considered to be one of the most efficient ways to separate samples of different densities.
How it Works
Screw cap tubes are found in the vast majority of laboratories and are commonly used for the long-term storage and cryopreservation of a plethora of sample types. Effectively maintaining sample integrity in these storage environments is of extreme importance to any researcher, and there are key factors that require consideration.
All contemporary, as well as NextGen and Third Generation sequencing methodologies are dependent on the generation of DNA fragments from initial MegaBase long chromosomal DNA molecules. General requirements are that such fragments have to be random and of similar size.
Significant time and effort is expended in screening chemical and biological sample libraries. However, no matter how advanced the screening system, the end results are only as good as the quality of the sample in the microplate wells.
Excessive background from endogenous sample matrix components has always been of great concern in bioanalysis, and has become paramount today with the need for decreasing analytical run times.
Many experienced lab technicians are aware of the sweet spot in their oven or incubator–the back right-hand corner of the middle shelf where their experiment or process always comes out right.
Product Focus
Ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis), an absorbance-based analytical technique, measures and identifies chemicals that absorb in the contiguous ultraviolet and visible regions of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Among the hyphenated mass spectrometry (MS) techniques, gas chromatography-MS (GC-MS) and high-performance liquid chromatography- MS (LC-MS) are the most notable. These methods combine the resolving power of high-resolution chromatography with the specificity and sensitivity of MS.
Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, a subset of infrared (IR) spectroscopy, uses a mathematical algorithm, Fourier transform, to translate raw infrared data into a spectrum.
Raman spectroscopy is based on the interaction of visible, near-infrared, or near-ultraviolet light on chemical bonds. When excited with light energy, bonds experience short-lived, higher-energy vibrational states.
Atomic absorption (AA) has been known since the 19th century, but it was not until the 1950s, thanks to efforts by Alan Walsh at Australias CSIRO research center, that use of AA spectrometers became routine for metals analysis.
Leadership and Staffing
Whether by training and education or by moving up through the ranks of their respective organizations, fortunate research professionals make their way into fields that offer meaningful work and the opportunity to use their skills to contribute to society.
A change in behavior, in attitude or in lifestyle is not easy to achieve, and some seem near impossible. However, the change process can be understood, and change can be implemented more successfully and more reliably by following a few rules.
Research-Specific Labs
For Florida's Advanced Environmental Laboratories, success is achieved through strong management support and smart hiring.
Business Management
Multi-vendor service models continue to evolve in order to address changing customer and market needs, such as the increasing need for asset utilization data that is vendor independent.
One of the best approaches for proactively managing obsolescence is to develop and maintain a multiyear capital plan that explicitly designates a specific portion for instrument replacement each year.
Despite the vigilance of federal, state and local regulators and of accreditation organizations that evaluate and certify laboratories, the development and maintenance of quality in laboratories are constant concerns.
Ask the Expert
David Hachey, Ph.D., talks about his role as the director of both the mass spectrometry and proteomics core laboratories at Vanderbilt University.
Lab Health and Safety
Design considerations for laboratory indoor environmental quality.