Isolating facility and layout from equipment during planning and maintenance of a cell culture lab
entails considerable risk, if for no other reason than the latter must fit into the former.

Although cell culture is more than 100 years old, it has only been applied to the manufacture of biological drugs for about 25 years. Today mammalian cell culture is the workhorse production platform for most of biotech’s protein therapeutics and increasingly for cell- and virus-based vaccines.

Conflict and disagreement are not always bad. In fact, they are essential to high-performing work teams.

Unfortunately in the world of business, whether it’s in the sciences or any other large global industry, managers don’t have the luxury of being able to sit back, analyze the workplace every four years, and understand just a portion of what’s going on in the competition.

Alexander Sherman, director of systems in the Department of Neurology and director of strategic development and systems at the Neurological Clinical Research Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital, discusses why the right choice and setup for data collecting, data handling, and data sharing infrastructure is important to help establish successful research collaborations.

In this month’s cover story, author John Borchardt describes the changes that have taken place since 2008 in priorities for hiring new laboratory employees.

Problem: There is little doubt that cell-based assays are becoming a mainstay across the pre-clinical drug discovery process. Many of these assays are end-point based, where live cells are cultured in microplates, incubated with compounds of

Some chemicals have a short life expectancy. Others will remain good for a long time. Solvents that form peroxides are one example of substances requiring periodic testing. Ethers, vinyl compounds, alcohols, ketones, and aldehydes are some of the

Problem: Poor quality antibodies are a major stumbling block for scientists detecting new protein targets in immunological applications. The prevalence of such antibodies is significant; reactions to recent, high-profile retractions of several

Guidelines for an effective exposure control plan.

Five trends in laboratory planning and construction that will impact future research facilities.

Six competencies needed to survive inevitable career ups and downs.