The only thing that changed was the title. The job, the responsibilities, even the pay were exactly the same, but when the title was changed to director, the relationships, levels of trust, gossip and impediments to getting things done were all out of whack for a couple of months. This is a situation that takes more than simple explanations to fix.

No matter how prepared new researchers think they are for the hazards they’re going to encounter in the lab, it’s pretty likely they’re eventually going to have some type of mishap that reminds them that firsthand experience has no substitute.

Problem: Mass spectrometry (MS) has become an indispensible technology for the analysis of compounds of biological interest, is widely available and offers rapid and accurate detection with broad applicability.

Problem: Pharma and biotech companies are striving to reduce drug attrition rates within the drug discovery process.

The environmental safety and food production industries are facing a rapidly changing climate, being increasingly affected by regulatory and financial pressures.

This simple idea preceded by 15 years the requirements of the OSHA Lab Standard for “Standard Operating Procedures,” “Control Measures” and “Special Provisions for Working with Particularly Hazardous Substances.”

Stephen Barnes, Ph.D., Professor of Pharmacology & Toxicology and Director of the Targeted Metabolomics and Proteomics Laboratory at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), talks about the changes taking place in the field of mass spectrometry (MS) as it migrates from the research lab to a clinical environment.

No matter how old or young workers may be, certain management principles are usually effective: make them accountable for their work, treat them with respect, and say thank you. These principles have value whether you work at a large corporation or in a small scientific lab.

We probably all have things that we say to ourselves when we are trying to push toward something new or different. Some of mine are: “Enough is enough,” “Wake up,” and “Aw, what the heck, do it anyhow.”