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

A quick snapshot of the latest offerings from the major LIMS vendors.

Because of the increased incidence of work-related musculoskeletal disorders among laboratory workers, the principles of ergonomic design and compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) are becoming increasingly important topics in the design of the biological safety cabinet (BSC). 

New approaches promise financial and environmental cost savings while addressing the challenge of increased bio-specimen collection

Agilent Technologies has taken an important step forward in automating sample preparation with its 7693A Automatic Liquid Sampler.

Using the Horizon Technology 8270 Carbon Cartridge Kit enables the capture of the more volatile 8270 compounds. The 8270 Carbon Cartridge Kit is designed for use with the Horizon Technology SPE-DEX 4790 Automated Extractor System, and the Oasis HLB (Hydrophilic-Lipophilic Balanced) solid phase extraction disk, developed by Horizon Technology and Waters Corporation.

Understanding the viscosity is a crucial aspect of manufacturing operations in many industries worldwide. In order to fulfill customer demands of product consistency and quality, viscosity measurement becomes even more important.

The popularity of mass spectrometers (MS) in the food, clinical research and pharmaceutical markets has pushed labs to seek ways to improve the speed of their liquid chromatography (LC), thus increasing the throughput of their MS.

BSCs are distinct from other safety enclosures. Laboratory fume hoods pull air over the work item and out into the environment through a vent, whereas controlled atmosphere glove boxes are completely enclosed, protecting both users and samples through an airtight barrier.

LIMS products vary from software for small laboratories to systems for enterprise-class distribution, where large implementations can cost millions of dollars and encompass licensing, training, validation and all the other services required.

Since exhaust hoods are among the major expense items for research laboratories and have a huge impact on continuing operational costs, we’ve decided to provide you with information on some of the newer hood designs that offer good performance and energy conservation.

To date, we’ve experienced a year of mega-mergers with six of the top pharmaceutical players combining forces to become three major contenders. What does this mean for the affected employees and managers alike? Well, believe it or not, it can lead to employment opportunities and personal successes that otherwise may not have been considered.

Sales and revenue growth are stalled at many companies in a variety of industries. As a result, these firms have frozen or reduced laboratory budgets and in some cases have reduced laboratory staffing levels. There are several ways laboratory managers can effectively respond to these situations.

Outsourcing laboratory work is usually done on the assumption that another laboratory is able to perform the work more cheaply and/or more rapidly while maintaining adequate quality of the results. Laboratory managers must study other laboratories to determine if this assumption is correct before outsourcing work to them.

So far, nearly 5,000 grants totalling over $1 billion have been awarded by NIH. Most have been awarded to research labs at large universities and small colleges, while some have been awarded to small, privately owned research and product development companies.

In tough economic times many companies slash their training budgets, thinking that training is expendable. This, according to the author, is ill-advised. Training is not an expense to be minimized; it is an investment that pays dividends by helping workers do their jobs more effectively so that they can positively impact a company's bottom line.

For most laboratories, turnover is low and tenures are high, so the opportunity and necessity to conduct interviews is limited. But, when it's necessary, the author argues that behavioral event interviews work best because the questioning format requires on-the-spot self-analysis that is difficult to prepare for except through life experiences.

Lab manager Larry Decker's TestAmerica environmental lab in Connecticut is where he and his staff analyze thousands of soil, wastewater, and monitoring well samples each month. One key to the lab's success is a management team that works on training every individual to be reactive and ready to go if the person is needed in a different department.