Laboratory benchmarking entails comparing the quality of one lab to measures taken from a range of other laboratories, or from the standard bearers. Its the details involved in the benchmarking process, however, that can be maddening.

Until the mid-1980s, purification of nucleic acids was traditionally performed by phenol-chloroform extraction and alcohol precipitation, which involved tedious manual tasks with toxic substances. This approach was soon replaced by the introduction of spin-column technology.

Popular 96- and 384-well microplate-based applications are often not ideally suited for manual pipetting methods. Although readily available in most laboratories, manual pipette use in these formats is neither efficient nor consistent.

Automation solutions offer a great alternative to laborintensive manual processes. Liquid handling automation eliminates human errors and process inconsistencies over extended periods of time, resulting in an increased robustness compared to manual processes.

Marc Ferrer, Ph.D., Team Leader at the Chemical Genomics Center, which is part of the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health discusses the need for automation in various laboratory settings.

A summary of recommendations based on audit and inspection reports, along with some general lab safety recommendations, provide a broad overview of the types of issues raised during safety consultations.

A good system for chemical management begins with a complete inventory of the laboratory's chemicals and a material safety data sheet (MSDS) collection for those materials.

Four Key Strategies to Getting Everyone to Play Nice in the Sandbox.

Good leaders need to be proficient in whats called situational leadership. Plain and simple, situational leadership means having the skills and understanding to assess the scenario youre facing and manage it with the right leadership style.

Microscopes have been used by scientists for centuries, and are now more widely relied upon than ever.