Lab Manager | Run Your Lab Like a Business

Cover Story |  Volume 5 - Issue 4  |  May 2010

Q is for Quality

Management's role in the continuous improvement process

Sections

Business Management

Q is for Quality

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.

Managing Obsolescence

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.

A Multi-Vendor Service Model

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.

Leadership and Staffing

Rules for Successfully Implementing Change in Your Organization

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.

Science Matters: The Four Characteristics of Successful Networkers

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.

Laboratory Technology

The Politics of Stem Cell Research

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.

Managing the Coming Data Flood

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.

Greening UPS

Greening UPS

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.

EMD Millipore Water Purification for Ion Chromatography

Produces a constant and reliable source of ultrapure water for Dionex IC systems.

Hach Pocket pH Meter

Features a virtually unbreakable non-glass silicon chip sensor that gives stable readings in seconds.

May 2010 Technology News

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

NuAire CO2 Incubators

Looped HEPA Filtration (CO2 & Air) creates ISO Class 5 Air Quality.

Ask the Expert

Ask the Expert: How to Overcome Challenges with Mass Spectrometry

David Hachey, Ph.D., talks about his role as the director of both the mass spectrometry and proteomics core laboratories at Vanderbilt University.

Lab Product

Evolution of the Lab Centrifuge

Evolution of the Lab Centrifuge

The laboratory centrifuge is considered to be one of the most efficient ways to separate samples of different densities.

Product Focus

Product Focus: AA Spectroscopy

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.

Product Focus: Raman Spectroscopy

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.

Product Focus: FTIR Spectroscopy

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.

Product Focus: Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry

Product Focus: Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry

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.

Product Focus: UV-VIS Spectroscopy

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.

Research-Specific Labs

Perspective On: An Environmental Lab

For Florida's Advanced Environmental Laboratories, success is achieved through strong management support and smart hiring.

Lab Health and Safety

The ABCs of IEQ

Design considerations for laboratory indoor environmental quality.

How it Works

How Consistent, Stable Incubator and Oven Temperature Works

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.

How Sample Prep for Phospholipid Removal Works

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.

How Measuring Sample Volume and Detecting Precipitates Works

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.

How it Works: Accurate Shearing of Chromosomal DNA

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.

How it Works: Maintaining Sample Viability

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.

Purchasing Guides

Lab Manager Magazine's Independent Guide to Purchasing A UV/VIS Spectrophotometer

There are many features of a high performance UV/Vis spectrophotometer to consider before making your final purchase. This guide will assist you in short-listing a few models by examining three main selection criteria.