The latest lab apps allow researchers to access their instruments from almost anywhere

Okay, let’s jump straight to the point. You’ve performed your due diligence and have decided that to remain viable your laboratory absolutely must transition to a laboratory information management system (LIMS). That is an important step, but perhaps one of the simplest.

This month, we highlight companies that will be exhibiting at the American Society for Microbiology’s annual general meeting (asm2015) and the American Society for Mass Spectrometry’s annual conference (ASMS 2015).

At Pittcon this year, PANalytical revealed a completely new type of analytical X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometer.

Douglas Kiehl is a principal research scientist at Eli Lilly & Company, and is currently leader for the Spectroscopy & Raw Materials team. His group performs characterization and structural elucidation of impurities, related substances, and contaminants as well as testing and qualification of process raw materials through development and commercialization. Additionally, his team leads Lilly’s technical strategy for evaluating extractables and leachables associated with pharmaceutically relevant materials. 

Dr. Donald Sakaguchi, professor of genetics, development and cell biology at Iowa State University, talks to contributing editor Dr. Tanuja Koppal about the time and cost savings generated in his lab due to a recent investment in a high-content screening (HCS) system. While his research group can now set up more experiments to look at different cell types and conditions, they also spend more time carefully designing the experiments and optimizing the conditions and later analyzing the vast amounts of data generated from each experiment.

Brownfield sites—mainly abandoned or soon-to-be abandoned industrial facilities—pose huge challenges to governments, communities, and engineering firms charged with restoring them to common uses. At issue are contaminants—chemicals and metals—that if not remediated pose public health concerns.

Combining chromosomes from different organisms started as soon as someone created a hybrid. “In natural breeding,” says geneticist Kulvinder S. Gill of Washington State University in Pullman, “we transfer genes through hybridization—transferring pollen from one plant to another.” He adds, “It can, for example, be pollen from wheat to rye or rye to wheat.”

Infectious diseases remain deadly. In fact, the World Health Organization’s top-ten list of global causes of death includes two examples: lower respiratory infections and HIV. The list stretches much further, to long-standing culprits—including malaria and tuberculosis— and newer perpetrators—including Ebola and
mad cow disease. For public health measures in general and for treating individual patients, clinical microbiologists need fast and effective methods of microbial identification.

Cell-based assays have become the go-to technology for pharmaceutical, environmental, and toxicology labs. Cells are far less costly to maintain than test animals and don’t involve the ethical considerations. But the complexity of cell-based assays compared with chemical or biochemical assays presents distinct challenges to laboratory managers.

As the most abundant element in the universe, hydrogen might seem easy to come by, except that it’s usually bonded to oxygen in water or bound in organic compounds. Many applications, though, require pure hydrogen.

When implementing laboratory informatics systems, managers should consider both current and anticipated workflows, says Trish Meek, director of product strategy at Thermo Fisher Scientific (Waltham, MA). “They need complete agreement and buy-in from business owners and IT. Managers should consider the agility their business requires, for example, when bringing in a new product or instrument.”

Ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectrophotometry is arguably the most common as well as one of the oldest forms of absorption-based analysis. UV and visible regions of the electromagnetic spectrum are contiguous: UV wavelengths range from 10 to 4000 angstroms; they are visible from 4000 to 7000 angstroms.

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.

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