Laboratory Equipment

Pittcon Showcases New and Breakthrough Technologies

General lab equipment, analytical instruments and specialty life science testing devices highlight the show’s return to the Northeast.

This issue of Laboratory Equipment covers the new products and technologies showcased at the 64th Annual Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy (www.pittcon.org) being held in the Pennsylvania Convention Center, Philadelphia, Pa., on March 17 to 21, 2013. Pittcon draws more than 17,000 attendees to view the laboratory products from more than 930 exhibitors. This year is an off-year for both the Analytica and Achema conferences, so visitors will only get to see new lab products at Pittcon and possibly ArabLab in Dubai the week before Pittcon (March 10 to 13, 2013). ArabLab has about 10,000 attendees and 750 exhibitors, but less than 10% of the exhibitors at ArabLab are also at Pittcon and vice versa, so attendees at one show will see mostly uniquely new products that are not seen at the other show.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/articles/2013/02/pittcon-showcases-new-and-breakthrough-technologies

Responding to Patient Safety Threats in the Lab

A public-private solution is needed to address and solve the serious risks to patient safety inherent in today’s pathology laboratory.

Few would argue that patient safety in a healthcare venue should be of paramount concern. Recognizing that, the federal government is spending $1 billion to address patient safety risks such as medication errors, slips and falls and inaccuracies in charting. Still, there’s one little-known setting where patient safety can be compromised on a daily basis—a place where risk should be unacceptable, given the potential for catastrophic results: the pathology lab.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/articles/2013/02/responding-patient-safety-threats-lab

Certified Welding Systems Support Medical Device Industry

Quality systems for the welding of medical devices rely on a variety of set standards, including protocols, certification and federal agency compliance.

A quality system rigorous enough to support the medical device industry is a necessary component of any welding company doing business in that sector. But what exactly does that include? A little bit of everything, it turns out. From IQ/OQ/PC (installation qualification/operational qualification/performance qualification) documentation, to adherence to ISO 13485 quality management standards, to compliance with FDA good manufacturing practices; quality procedures and documentation pervade the entire organization.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/articles/2013/02/certified-welding-systems-support-medical-device-industry

A Look Back: Early Pittcon Coverage

While Pittcon is celebrating its 64th birthday and a return to its roots in the Northeast, Laboratory Equipment is celebrating its 50th birthday with a look back at previous coverage.

Laboratory Equipment magazine was first published in May 1964 as a large tabloid publication. Since then, the magazine has evolved—just as laboratory equipment has—to meet the demands of a market and take advantage of a changing technological landscape. One thing that hasn’t changed, though, is a commitment to showcasing new products and technologies, especially from one of the most important trade shows in the industry.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/articles/2013/02/look-back-early-pittcon-coverage

Ever Faster Technological Change

I am constantly amazed at the speed at which technology seems to be changing and how fast we’re catching up with the future. Two recent publications bring this fact home: in a Brookings Institution research article, the authors describe multiple body parts that future researchers will use to track individuals. And in “The Future Issue” (January 14, 2013) of Fortune magazine the editors document a number of future technologies and events, including an interview with one of my favorite futurists—Ray Kurzweil, on reverse engineering of the human brain.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/blogs/2013/02/ever-faster-technological-change

FINAL CALL: Pittcon 2013 Product Submissions

The February 2013 issue of Laboratory Equipment will showcase products being featured at Pittcon 2013. This special issue offers all exhibitors the chance to submit relevant press releases for publication.

Click here: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/01/pittcon-2013-call-editorial

New Instruments Reduce Energy, Water Usage in Food Processes

Recent developments in continuous-process cooking provide critical reductions in energy and cost savings.

There are many processes in food manufacturing that can be addressed to reduce operating costs while at the same time improving sustainability. One of the most critically important objectives to achieving this is reducing process energy and water consumption. Implementing energy- and water-efficient practices and technologies should be a senior priority at system levels in food manufacturing plants. With the continual increase in energy and water costs, optimizing energy and water usage in food processing has never been a stronger issue.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/articles/2013/01/new-instruments-reduce-energy-water-usage-food-processes

The Pervasive World of Lab Automation

From biobanking, electronic pipetting, labeling and analytical instruments, automation is enhancing lab productivity, reliability and accuracy.

Automated operations in the research laboratory are demanded for a number of reasons. An operation that’s automated reduces the variation in a previously manual operation—and in the extreme, it can remove the contribution of human error to a process. A prime reason for automation in today’s tough economic environment is that automated systems reduce labor costs for the research lab by enabling operations to be precisely performed without human intervention and 24/7 if needed. Newer automation systems can also adapt as processes require by utilizing intelligent software.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/articles/2013/01/pervasive-world-lab-automation

Collaboration in the Information Age

Collaboration is, unfortunately, not as common as hoped for in the scientific community. Some researchers are quick to point out the detrimental effects, such as the difficulty young authors face in highlighting their work when they are four pages down on the author list, or the funding eligibility issues that may arise in such a partnership. The increase of scientific capability in non-traditional powerhouse countries, like China and Russia, raises additional concerns when it comes to data sharing. But like most things, there is a time and place for collaboration—and that’s in genomics.

We’ve lived in an “omics” age ever since the Human Genome Project (HGP) yielded the first human sequencing data more than a decade ago. In 2004, the last piece of the HGP puzzle was released, and that’s when our scientific landscape started shifting. With the advent of increasingly powerful computers, better software and enhanced methods, the “omics age” has given way to what is now being called the “information age” of genetics.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/blogs/2012/12/collaboration-information-age

Research as Intervention: Dealing with Disease

Psychosocial issues surrounding HIV/AIDS has forced some to fall out of treatment, turning back the clock on all the progress made in the last two decades.

Cindy Fair, professor of human service studies at Elon Univ. in Elon, N.C., recently returned from a yearlong sabbatical studying the fertility desires and intentions of youth living with perinatal HIV infection—or, put more simply, whether young adults born with HIV want to or expect to have children. Although never prepping a sample or examining a culture, Fair says she sees her work as “research as intervention.” Though she’s not providing direct care to the people she works with, she’s able to offer them an opportunity to make positive changes in their lives.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/articles/2012/11/research-intervention-dealing-disease

Program Matches Undergrads With Experienced Researchers

The national Undergraduate Research Initiative seeks to provide students with hands-on experience and better career options.

Chelsey Poling, a senior biomedical engineering major at Arizona State Univ. (ASU), spent much of the past summer working on the design and fabrication of microfluidic devices at the Univ. of California, Berkeley. ASU junior materials science and engineering major Katelyn Keberle spent the summer at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Maryland, helping develop new flame-retardant coatings for polyurethane foam.

These two women were among students in ASU’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering selected to participate in the National Science Foundation’s Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/articles/2012/11/program-matches-undergrads-experienced-researchers

Spying on Cells to Make Better Drugs

An UC Irvine professor has developed a novel biomedical sensor that will allow researchers to observe cells in their natural habitat. Spying, in general, is something that is usually frowned upon. In Weian Zhao’s Univ. of California, Irvine laboratory, however, it is both advocated and perfected.

Zhao, a UC Irvine professor and member of its Stem Cell Research Center, recently created biosensors that attach to stem cells to enable researchers to spy on cells in their native habitat and track how these cells move through living tissue.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/articles/2012/11/spying-cells-make-better-drugs

Fume Hood Protocols Are Critical for Student Safety

The importance of chemical fume hoods cannot be understated, nor can the importance of safety protocols when dealing with these devices.

According to Mark Lee, Assistant Professor of Radiology and Chemistry at the Univ. of Missouri, there is one crucial piece of lab equipment that determines if a room is a just a room or a chemistry lab—the chemical fume hood. Lee depends on five 8 ft hoods in his chemistry lab to keep his research team safe as they increase the potency of cancer drugs, one molecule at a time. Without the development of fume hoods and the ability to keep scientists safe while working with hazardous or toxic chemicals, science would not have evolved into what it is today. Chemical fume hoods are prevalent pieces of lab equipment located in university science buildings all over the world.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/articles/2012/11/fume-hood-protocols-are-critical-student-safety

10 Steps to Maintain Academic Leadership

The U.S. has and still dominates in the number of world-class universities, but changes are needed to maintain that status quo.

The United States has unquestionably and literally the largest number of world-class universities globally. According to the recently released Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2012-13, there are 76 U.S. universities in the top 200—47 in the top 100—the same number as in the 2011-12 rankings. THE rankings are based on 13 performance indicators calculated by Thomson Reuters that cover teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook. Comparatively, there were only 17 Asian universities in the top 100 and 32 in Europe (including 10 in England).

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/articles/2012/11/10-steps-maintain-academic-leadership

Lab Automation Focuses on Analysis

Lab automation systems are used in all types of research, from life science sample prep to environmental testing and monitoring and materials processing and purification. The instrumentation used in these automated applications is similarly diverse, including all manner of lab instrumentation and equipment. Researchers are finding ways, and manufacturers are creating devices, to automate any application or procedure that takes an excessive amount of time to perform manually or obtain accurate results. Indeed, nearly two-thirds of the researchers recently surveyed by the editors of Laboratory Equipment magazine indicate that accuracy and productivity are the two primary reasons they look to automate some of their lab operations. Other reasons noted by the survey respondents include reliability (50% of the respondents), cost savings (33%), staffing issues (22%), hazardous materials concerns (17%) and the ability to have 24/7 lab operations (16%).

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/articles/2012/11/lab-automation-focuses-analysis