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Is this the Extinction of ESR, the Dinosaur Laboratory test?
Many laboratories have historically clung onto the ESR (Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate) as a test that can confirm that patients are unwell. Even though the science behind ESR is seen as dubious by laboratory scientists and many clinicians including Consultant Haematologists, the question that remains unanswered is why we are still requesting it?
Advanced Gas Detection Technology Supports Arctic Greenhouse Gas Research
Enormous quantities of greenhouse gases (GHG) exist within Arctic ice and frozen soils, so with the threat of global warming, a clear understanding of the relationship between GHG in the atmosphere and in the ice/soil is vital because melting of permafrost could cause a dangerous climate tipping point. There can be few more challenging environments for monitoring gases, but PhD researcher Martin Brummell from the University of Saskatchewan has successfully employed a Gasmet DX4015 FTIR analyser...
The Revolution In Texture Testing
Texture analysis is an established technique originating from the 1950s when manufacturers in the food industry began to require a more objective assessment of their products. Textural (or rheological) properties of foods, such as hardness, chewiness, gumminess, tenderness, ripeness, elasticity, and adhesiveness, had been characterised by laboratories using humans to do the qualitative evaluation. Today these same properties are largely measured in a consistently quantifiable manner using a Text...
The New Era In Powder Flow Testing
In 2003 the Working Party on the Mechanics of Particulate Solids for the European Federation of Chemical Engineers endorsed the idea that a simple and inexpensive instrument to test powders in gravity discharge from hoppers would be of significant benefit to the bulk solids industry. Problems relating to erratic flow behaviour and total stoppage were taking a toll on efficiency of processing operations and, at times, quality and consistency of finished product. Test methods practiced by the indu...
Pipettes as Sources of Error
Liquid delivery is one of the most common processes in life science laboratories, from drug discovery and compound management laboratories to analytical chemistry and genomics/proteomics facilities. These laboratories use liquid delivery for processes including sample preparation, dilution, standards preparation and reagent addition. However, the means for delivering liquid samples have advanced drastically over time, from the traditional glass micropipette to today’s electronic, variable volume...
Fast Multi-element Analysis of Heavy Metals in Soil and Sediment Samples
Many dangerous heavy metals accumulate in the soil and sediments of our rivers, lakes and oceans if released into the environment either directly discharged by industrial plants and municipal sewage treatment plants or come from polluted agricultural areas or as a result of historical contamination. Since all these heavy metals can go into the water, the earth and the air and thus into the food chain, a proper disposal, recycling and the regulation of the application of sewage to agricultural...
MicroRNA Profiling of Individual Hematopoietic Stem Cells
Single cell studies are increasingly important to stem cell biology as rare cell subsets are found to play a critical role in the maintenance of processes such as hematopoiesis. MicroRNAs are regulated during hematopoiesis, and the ability to study the expression levels of these genes in single cells is crucial to understanding the role microRNAs may play in hematopoietic stem cell function. Purified hematopoietic stem cell populations are heterogeneous, making it challenging to study these rare...
Quick and reliable determination of complete proteins in pharmaceutical products by way of a TOC/TNb Analyser
In the pharmaceutical industry, the protein contents in culture media (for example, in vaccines) often have to be determined within the context of quality controls of raw materials, intermediate and finished products. Today a broad range of methods is available for this purpose. The European Pharmacopeia (Ph.Eur. 2.5.33) alone describes seven different methods that are based on different reaction and detection principles. The largest group of such methods consists in protein tests according to L...
The 62nd annual Pittsburgh Conference & Expo show review
The 62nd annual Pittsburgh Conference & Expo took place at the Georgia World Congress Centre in Atlanta, from 13-18 March and as always International Labmate Ltd (ILM) was at the forefront collecting all the latest news from product launches and business acquisitions to the most deserving of award winners. Exhibitors also shared their views with Tamsyn Cox, ILM Features Editor and provided valuable feedback. All this, and more, can be found within this Pittcon Show Review… Analtech’s Ken Gran...
The Influence of Water Activity (aw) in Bakery Products
Water activity - a widely unknown or underestimated quality parameter offers many more benefits than just normal moisture content determination. It is the key parameter of gathering information about product shelf life, texture and taste or microbiological and chemical stability. Nowadays, where foodstuffs are shipped around the globe, a tough control of a product’s water activity helps to reach the shelf-life goals and provides support for safe and uncontaminated foods to the consumer. Especia...
Determination of DNA and RNA Melting Point on UV-VIS Photometer SPECORD® PLUS - Alexandra Kästner
Nucleic acids are biological molecules essential for life. Together with proteins nucleic acids make up the most important macro molecules where each is found in abundance in all living things. They allow organisms to transfer genetic information from one generation to the next. There are two types of nucleic acids: deoxyribonucleic acid, better known as DNA and ribonucleic acid, better known as RNA. Their names are derived from type of sugar, ribose, contained within the molecules. In living or...
Why Is Phosphopeptide Enrichment Important? - Ylva Laurin, Ann-Marie Nissfolk, Johan Öhman, Ulrika Meyer, Helena Hedlund and Marianne Alben
Studying Cancer Cell Signalling Using TiO₂ Mag Sepharose™ Magnetic Beads Phosphorylation is a common reversible post-translational modification involved in the regulation of many essential biological processes, for example cell signalling, which is of prime importance for the study of various disease states such as cancer. The phosphoproteins and phosphopeptides resulting from these processes are important to the understanding of tumour progression, however, there are various barriers to...
Basic Comparison of Low Temperature Cooling Methods - Robert W Repke
There are various cooling methods available today that can impact both equipment and product performance. This paper aims to give an overview of the pros and cons of some of the most commonly used methods, and offer the most effective use of each. Methods and Descriptions: Dry Ice is a solid form of carbon dioxide with a temperature of -78.5°C (-109.3°F) at atmospheric pressure. 1 pound of dry ice = 246 BTUs. It’s colourless, odourless, non-flammable and slightly acidic. If the environment in...
Don’t compromise on Accuracy & Precision – Quality Pipette Tips are Crucial to Optimal Performance of a Pipetting System - Amanda Cooper
The work performed in clinical, research and quality control laboratories can be majorly impacted by a single droplet or sample so small it can hardly be seen. Thus, it is critical to evaluate all of the components comprising the pipetting system, in order to maximise accuracy and reproducibility of volume delivery when using micropipettes. However, even with the highest quality, regularly calibrated pipettes the choice of pipette tip used is also crucial to accuracy and performance. The ISO...
New Knife Mill Sets Standards - The GM 300 Produces Homogeneous Samples Within Seconds - Dr Andreas Theisen
Retsch’s knife mill GRINDOMIX GM 300 is ideal for the gentle size reduction and homogenisation of food and feed. It processes sample volumes of up to 4,500ml quickly and reproducibly. With its four sharp and robust blades and a powerful drive with temporary peaks of up to 3kW it is ideally suited to homogenise substances with a high water, oil or fat content as well as dry, soft, medium-hard and fibrous products. The so-called QuEChERS method (‘quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged and safe’) h...
900 Seconds At XenoTech - Paula Pou
Leading contract research organisation gains hundreds of hours in research time thanks to new QA method Contract research organisations (CROs) have been growing at an impressive clip since the 1990s when the R&D efforts and needs of pharmaceutical companies started becoming increasingly more complex. Despite their ongoing focus on innovation, most pharmaceutical companies, regardless of size, have also had to bear the weight of increasing external cost pressures, contributing to the downsizing...
MicroRNA Profiling of Individual Hematopoietic Stem Cells - Ken Livak, Véronique Lecault, Adam K. White and Oleh I. Petriv
Single cell studies are increasingly important to stem cell biology as rare cell subsets are found to play a critical role in the maintenance of processes such as hematopoiesis. MicroRNAs are regulated during hematopoiesis, and the ability to study the expression levels of these genes in single cells is crucial to understanding the role microRNAs may play in hematopoietic stem cell function. Purified hematopoietic stem cell populations are heterogeneous, making it challenging to study these rare...
Sample Management and Laboratory Testing - Ian Rippin
The National Laboratory Service (NLS) recently announced its largest set of commercial contracts to date after having been appointed by UK Water operators to assist in the preparation for the adoption of the latest EU water legislation. Ian Rippin, Commercial Director at the NLS, describes how the programme will work in the new regulatory landscape. The Chemical Investigations Programme The UK Water Chemical Investigations Programme (CIP) is a massive scale environmental testing programme faci...
Compliance, Risk and Cost of Ownership Comparisons for Critical Laboratory and Facility Continuous Monitoring - Wired, Wireless and Standalone Systems - Ken Appel
Worldwide, there is growing concern about how to protect public safety and increased cooperation among regulatory agencies to audit laboratories and facilities subject to GLP and GCP guidelines. As agencies focus inspection resources on risk-based areas, there is greater scrutiny to existing regulations such as the US Food and Drug Administration’s review of how the storage of electronic data, 21 CFR Part 11, is being applied in the laboratory environment and elsewhere. Recently, the FDA has con...
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Technology Improves Sample Throughput - John Paul Cerroti
One of Europe’s leading independent testing laboratories sought an alternative to the standard solvent extraction/acid hydrolysis (Soxhlet) method for testing the amount of fat in a variety of foods. With numerous sites throughout the UK and Ireland, this contract laboratory provides quality control analytical services to the food industry. By converting from the wet chemistry method to a benchtop nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) analyser for measuring fat content of foods, the lab reaped signif...
Specifications of Ovens Verified by Temperature Distribution Measurement - Tim Tröndle
No direct conclusions about the reliability of the control behaviour while heating up can be drawn from the technical data on temperature stability and homogeneity as provided by the manufacturers of ovens and incubators. For this reason, the accredited service provider Testo Industrial Services was contracted to test the Memmert UFP 500 oven. The oven yielded top results for temperatures of 50°C, 150°C and 250°C and fan speeds from 0 to 100%. An increasing number of manufacturers of ovens and...
Next-Generation Data Analysis Software Helps Researchers to Understand the Link Between Genetics and Disease - Carl-Johan Ivarsson
Although modern gene expression studies are proving invaluable to the study of human biology, the amount of data that is produced by this kind of research is enormous. As a result, it is impossible to derive any real biological meaning from these findings unless sophisticated analysis methods are used to help interpret the data effectively. To address this issue, a team of scientists at the Institute of Human Genetics of the Christian-Albrechts-University in Kiel, Germany, is currently using so...
Artifact Removal from Spectral Domain OCT Images - Mohammad R. N. Avanaki
Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a high resolution, non-invasive imaging modality based on non-ionising optical radiation, which delivers three-dimensional (3D) images from microstructure components within the tissue [1]. The time domain (TD-) OCT produces threedimensional images by using the transversal scan with two mirrors (XY scanners) and the axial scan by moving the reference arm. In contrary, in frequency domain (FD-) OCT the reference arm is fixed and the optical path length diffe...
New Cutting Mill SM 300 – Refinement of a Well-Proven Grinding Principle - Retsch GmbH
Cutting mills are used in many different areas of sample preparation for subsequent analyses. Typical applications include the size reduction of secondary fuels, the processing of biomass for renewable energy research, the control of products in the context of RoHS and WEEE regulations or the recovery of precious metals – the variety of sample materials is huge. To meet all the requirements of such varied applications, the mill needs to be flexible and powerful. Even though the existing cutting...
14001Certification Doesn’t Cost – It Pays - Steve Williams
Organisations are looking for more from Environmental Management Systems than just compliance. Increasingly, businesses are re-evaluating their systems and looking to improve and protect their current and future performance. The role of independent, third-parties and their assessment methodologies is growing in importance. In conjunction with their assurance providers, businesses are seeking to: take into account the concerns of stakeholders; address the organisation’s most significant risks; an...
Applying Resistance Data for Electrode Troubleshooting - Antonia Finlayson & Nadejda Vilissova
To ensure accurate pH measurement, many laboratories perform regular testing of their pH electrodes. Typically this will consist of testing the electrode against known buffers and performing calculations of slope and offset, or monitoring the response time. The result can show faulty electrode performance but does not necessarily pinpoint the underlying cause. Often the user will go on to cleaning, rehydration, or other salvage attempts to no effect. The Thermo Scientific Log R meters allow use...
Know Your H2O - Estelle Riche, & Maricar Tarun
Purified water is the most common reagent found in the laboratory, used in experimental protocols in virtually every type of application. Despite its ubiquity in the research setting, the contribution of water to the success of experimental outcomes is often overlooked. Used as blanks, for dissolution and dilution of samples, dilution of standards, preparation of mobile phases and for media and buffer preparation, water is central to experimental success. Water purity is critical for a wide ran...
Rapid Evaporation Solutions for Natural Product Extraction Processes - John Hester
Working with natural products as candidates for pharmaceutical leads has a reputation of being very difficult. Sample collection, preparation, extraction, and drying is extremely labour intensive and not easily reproducible from a process standpoint. The traditional bottleneck in the natural product pipeline has been the drying of solvent extracted sample. Recently, the use of new technology has facilitated and sped up this process, helping to eliminate the bottleneck. The National Center for N...
Technical Considerations for Ultracentrifugation
Initially developed in the 1920’s, ultracentrifuges have the ability to generate forces thousands or millions of times stronger than the force of gravity. Further development of this class of devices permitted the fractionation of subcellular components which were previously visible only through the use of an electron microscope. As a result, modern ultracentrifugation can be used to determine the shape, size and weight of macromolecular complexes. Extremely high speeds can be obtained through...
A Quick and Easy Method to Separate Proteins of Similar Molecular Weights Using 2D Electrophoresis
Two-dimensional electrophoresis is a critical technique for proteomic research; many researchers believe two-dimensional (2D) electrophoresis can only be accomplished using a combination of 2D gel electrophoresis to separate proteins, followed by visualisation through either (a) mass spectrometry (MS) or (b) the use of a cooled CCD imaging system combined with image analysis software for protein identification. Although these techniques are powerful and sensitive, proteins can be identified ea...
Powder Testing Techniques for QbD
Quality by Design, the new way of working enshrined in guidance from the FDA, raises the profile of pharmaceutical manufacturing and process development. More specifically it demands the detailed consideration of processing issues during the earlier stages of development. This poses the question of how best to inject the necessary expertise from the outset. Analytical tools that ease communication across the traditional formulation/process development/production boundaries can help. Regulator...
Particle Size Measurements of Dark and Concentrated Dispersions by Dynamic Light Scattering
In this paper, we introduce an innovative device for nanoparticle sizes measurement in dark and concentrated media based on dynamic light scattering (DLS). Conventional DLS is a powerful technique to characterisedilute and transparent dispersions of nanoparticles. However, it becomes ineffective in dark media, since the laser beam is absorbed by the sample and can induce an interfering effect. In the case of concentrated samples, the artefact of multiple scattering also biases the measurement. T...
Energy Efficiency in Biological Safety Cabinets
With our planet’s finite resources and the successive energy, environmental and financial crises, we have been repeatedly reminded of the need to be more careful of how we expend our resources. As a commonly used piece of laboratory equipment, the biological safety cabinet (BSC) is vital in ensuring the safety of the user as well as the sample. However, these cabinets can consume vast amounts of energy. This article looks at how to ensure that the important safety benefits and quality of work of...
Nanotechnology Leading the Way in Life Sciences
The field of medical science is developing rapidly and there is no doubt that nanotechnology is helping to resolve some of the industry’s most significant challenges. In 2008, the biotechnology and pharmaceuticals industry had exports of over £17.2 billion and a balance of trade of £6.0 billion. With an estimated 308 Nano-Life Science companies internationally, it is no surprise that nanotechnology has attracted a huge amount of attention from global media and governments. In February 2010, t...
New Gene Expression Research Hopes to Replace the Need for Animal Testing
Researchers at Lund University in Sweden are using nextgeneration data analysis software from Qlucore to conduct important new studies that aim to reduce or replace animal testing within the cosmetics industry and beyond. Until now, it has been impossible to determine whether cosmetics such as make-up, shampoo, or moisturisers are likely to cause an allergic reaction unless tested on a living creature. With this powerful new software, however, scientists can test their theories by conducting th...
Enhancing Environmental Testing
Approximately 30 years old, environmental testing is still a relatively young industry. As the sector has developed, it has evolved significantly. Here, Nicola Vosloo, European Market Development Leader, PerkinElmer, Inc. explores the latest developments in this industry and considers how commercial testing companies are rising to emerging challenges. Increasingly, environmental testing is outsourced to third party contract testing laboratories. For these companies, ensuring the highest qualit...
TOC Determination in Wastewater
TOC DETERMINATION IN DIFFICULT MATRICES The TOC content is a measure of the concentration of organically bound carbon and is therefore a direct indication of the pollution levels of organic compounds in different matrices. The application field for TOC analysis is quite broad, being used mainly in ultra pure water, surface water, drinking water applications and outlets of clarification plants. But nowadays, demand is increasing to measure TOC in more problematic matrices such as acids, bases an...
Analysing for Toxic Elements in Tap and Bottled Drinking Water Using ICP-OES
Over the last decade, there has been a remarkable increase in the popularity of bottled drinking water. Bottled water manufacturers have capitalised on public concerns about tap water quality and have implemented marketing activities aimed at convincing consumers that bottled water is purer and safer than tap water. According to the 2008 Global Bottled Water report produced by Zenith International, Asia/Australasia represents the largest regional market with a 26.5% share [1]. It has been forec...
New Flow Cytometry Software Enables High Throughput Determination of Apoptotic Mechanism
INTRODUCTION The study of the role of mitochondria in cell health and apoptosis has become increasingly important. Here, we study the inter-relationships between mitochondrial membrane potential, apoptosis, cell death and mitochondrial superoxide stress using the multiplexing power of the guava easyCyte 8HT benchtop flow cytometry platform and Incyte software when cells are treated with multiple inducers Using the guava® easyCyte™ 8HT flow cytometer with InCyte™ software (Millipore) and the Flo...
Determination of Cd and Pb in sediment without sample preparation
By using direct solid sampling technique samples can be measured without time-consuming preparation. Thus, total analysis time and blank problems caused by chemicals used for sample preparation are reduced to a minimum. Sediments act as archives, where changing conditions can be traced for heavy metal cycling in the geo- and atmosphere. Thus the increased emission of trace elements related to industrial or mining activities is known to enhance significantly the total trace element concentrati...
Agilent 6540 Accurate-Mass Q-TOF: Superior Mass Accuracy for High-Confidence Characterisation of Unknowns
Quadrupole time-of-flight (Q-TOF) instruments are invaluable for characterisation of unknown compounds. They offer a combination of unbeatable separation speed and resolution as well as superior qualitative MS and MS/MS capabilities. However, even with their ability to give high resolution accurate mass data, it is common to get multiple candidate molecular formula for the [M+H]+ ion, or several elemental compositions for a given ion in the MS/MS spectra. High quality Q-TOF data helps to elimina...
Good Pipetting Technique - Simple Ways to Minimise Errors
As with many forms of instrumentation, a pipette will perform only as well as the operator’s technique allows. Even with a high quality, well calibrated pipette using the finest precision tips, variations in user operation can alter delivery volumes and introduce inaccuracies. As many complex laboratory methods rely on basic pipetting in the initial set up stages it is vital to get this critical step right from the beginning. Good technique increases accuracy by 0.1% to 5% Inaccuracy in results...
Automated Detection of Foreign Particulate Matter on Filters
The number of international standards relating to Foreign Particulate Matter (FPM) continues to grow steadily, reflecting an increasing awareness of the importance of FPM in numerous industries. Products as diverse as hydraulic fluids and pharmaceutical inhalers are now covered by regulations that adopt or refer to such standards. This article presents data from an automated image analysis method (Morphologi G3, Malvern Instruments, Figure 1) for the fast, accurate, and highly repeatable measure...
Forensic Blood Analysis: New Approach To Determine Time Since Deposition Of Blood At Crime Scenes
Until now it has been difficult to determine the age of a blood stain found at a crime scene due the present methods being either insensitive or not being able to determine accurately enough the time period since the blood was deposited. In a recent study, by the National Centre for Forensic Science at the University of Central Florida, a previously unidentified wavelength effect which shows a significant relationship to the life time of a blood stain has been discovered. The degree of this...
The Ice-Bucket Makeover: Portable Laboratory Cooling Gets with the Times
Data variability caused by differences in methods of acquisition and processing of human and animal samples (such as blood, nasal-, spinal-, mucosal fluid or tissue) is emerging as a major roadblock in post-genomic basic and clinical research (NCI Office of Biorepositories and Biospecimen Research (OBBR), June 2007). Worldwide efforts are currently under way to agree on a common standard operating procedure (SOP) or operating system for pre-analytical sample handling (see also www.isber.org/...
Maintaining an Environmentally-Friendly Pure Water Supply
Applications ranging from everyday lifescience procedures, through to complex automated drug discovery, require highly purified water. This is essential to ensure that analytical detection limits are optimised and reproducible results are obtained every time. The production of laboratory water is therefore a very important process that will, desirably, combine the effective elimination of specified contaminants, with efficiency and cost-effectiveness as well as being environmentally friendly....
Chill Out & Scale Up
In many pilot-plant or production facilities temperature control systems are like a wallflower at the junior high school dance – they are not the most technical, expensive or exciting equipment in the room and are easily overlooked. But, when the most popular person in the class asks the wallflower to dance, everyone notices! Likewise if a problem occurs with the temperature control system the process stops and the repair team dances into action. Actually ‘wallflower’ is a respectable moniker fo...
20 Years of Success and Growing: Analytik Jena Approaches Future with Strength and Optimism
Analytik Jena proud developers of leading spectroscopy systems and instruments for the analytical and life sciences markets celebrates its twentieth anniversary this year, following two decades which have seen it rise from small supplier to a substantial innovative group with international market presence. Rooted with a strong focus on early stage R&D partnerships, a powerful belief in the quality of its products and skills of its employees and encompassing technology based on the vast experienc...
Removing the Trial and Error From Developing Lyophilisation Cycles
Lyophilisation is a proven method for greatly increasing the shelf life and stability for a large variety of products, which are unstable in their native state. The growing prevalence of protein-based therapeutics is driving the increasing need for improved methods of freeze-drying process development. In order to streamline the drug development approval process, cycles must now be justified for each specific product. The goal is to have the most efficient cycle possible designed around the for...
Advantages Of Using Hydrocarbon, Green, Refrigerants In Laboratory Coolers / Freezers
Currently used refrigerants in laboratory freezers and/or coolers are mostly of the fluorocarbon type. These refrigerants do contribute, when emitted to the atmosphere, to the greenhouse effect. Therefore, these chemical refrigerants are included in the Kyoto Protocol that is linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. It is clear that there is pressure on the use or emission of these refrigerants, which means that limitations can be expected in future. This may pose pro...