Preventing back injury requires instruction, training, assessment, & ongoing evaluation

Scott Martin, Ph.D., team leader for RNA interference (RNAi) screening at the National Institutes of Health, Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, talks to contributing editor Tanuja Koppal, Ph.D., about recent trends in the use of different types of cells and reagents for screening drug targets and cellular pathways.

One trend evident in science generally, and for laboratories in particular, is the desire to do things faster, more reliably and economically, at a higher level of hardware and method robustness, and all with a less-specialized workforce. This is especially true of mass spectrometry, where users no longer need a Ph.D. to operate MS systems.

It’s the week before Easter, but outside my window there are still patches of snow on the ground. To which I say, enough already! Bring on Spring and make it snappy.

Business partnerships are about learning to leverage the best of what others can bring to the table for mutual benefit and growth.

 All new employees, students, faculty, and staff should receive a specially designed introduction to your safety program.

How can you add automation to your laboratory workflows in a way that is effective, efficient, and future proof?

The measurement of polydisperse nanoparticles in the region from 10 nm to 1000 nm in liquid is a challenge. Traditional light scattering methods such as dynamic light scattering (DLS), while being excellent for monodisperse samples, tend to skew results to larger sizes (and numbers).

According to one expert, the top service-related issue today is an unintended consequence of instrument sensitivity and stability

Sample preparation reduces sample complexity and renders samples into a format amenable to downstream analysis. Sample prep is most necessary for complex, multicomponent samples containing substances that interfere either with the MS (e.g., through ion suppression) or, in GC/LC-MS, the chromatography.

Pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies have become leading MS customers. Because they work with human and test animal biological fluids and low-dose drugs, sample preparation takes center stage. Many of these workflows are automated for both sample and standards preparation.