Dr. Ilka Ottleben

At the Julius Kühn Institute, the Federal Research Institute for Cultivated Plants in Germany, a young working group is trying to specifically modify the genetic material of plants, through genome editing. In this way, they also want to investigate possible risks of this technology. LAB Worldwide visited the team for one day.

Extremely sensitive analytical instruments capable of assaying analytes in the femtogram range have meanwhile become standard equipment in many laboratories. But their accuracy in analysis of drinking water is decisively influenced by the right choice of syringe filter unit, as described in this article.

Life sciences laboratories are another area in which plastic waste can be reduced. Approximately 5.5 million tons of plastic waste are produced every year in life sciences laboratories alone, including items like pipette tips, nitrile gloves, cell culture flasks. In the age of global waste pollution and the ubiquity of plastic in the world around us, this is definitely too much. It can’t all be changed, but improvements are possible in some areas.

Women can turn to a variety of methods to determine the best time in their menstrual cycle for conception. Volatile biomarkers have proven useful indicators in other contexts and now, the analysis of biogenic VOCs has been shown to provide insights on female fertility.

The determination of moisture in cured cannabis is an indicator of microbial contamination, a key variable used to calculate other constituent results on a dry basis and required for the pressing process of extracting CBD oil from cannabis. Thermogravimetric moisture determination can provide valuable services here.

Whether employed in basic research or the production of biopharmaceuticals, monoclonal antibodies are used in an exceptionally wide range of applications. Until now, harvesting of mammalian cell cultures used to be time-consuming, especially at laboratory scale, and usually involved a centrifugation step. A new diatomaceous earth-based filtration solution now improves and accelerates this process significantly.

Dr. Thomas Schinecker talks about demographic change, health policy and how increasing complexity can be managed for the benefit of patients, physicians, laboratories and the health care system. The interview was conducted by Dr. Ilka Ottleben from the LP editorial team.

Artificial intelligence and 80,000 ancient Chinese poems show that constraint poetic structures aid poetry appreciation

At the Julius Kühn Institute, the Federal Research Institute for Cultivated Plants in Germany, a young working group is trying to specifically modify the genetic material of plants, through genome editing. In this way, they also want to investigate possible risks of this technology. LAB Worldwide visited the team for one day.

Food testing laboratories need reliable data management systems in order to comply with the ever increasing regulatory requirements. LIMS platforms play an important role in terms of compliance with HACCP and ISO 17025 as well as in the implementation of comprehensive security mechanisms.

Carbohydrates are the most abundant class of biomolecules. But — their analysis is not always trivial. This article describes how electrolytic and highly automated inline eluent generation can be successfully applied to carbohydrate separations using HPAEC in combination with PAD.

Much better treatment options now exist for many illnesses compared to what was available ten years ago. Their effectiveness depends, however, on early detection. Laboratory diagnostics create a highly dynamic bond between scientific progress and medical applications.

Heating mantles are supposed to enable the user to heat liquids safely and quickly – even in cases of (accidental) misapplication. This is now taken into account by a modified EN Standard. And it is of great importance for users to know: a violation may have unexpected consequences

For some years, an active substance from the leaves of an ornamental plant has been regarded as a possible forerunner of a new group of potent drugs. So far, however, it has been very laborious to manufacture it in large quantities. That could now change: Researchers at the University of Bonn have identified a bacterium that produces the substance and can also be easily cultivated in the laboratory.

Heavy metal contamination in food and water poses a threat to humans and animals. The toxicity of elements such as chromium, mercury and arsenic varies depending on their oxidation state. Food analysis is a very effective method for positively identifying the oxidation state.

Ultimately, every analysis relies on detection, and in most cases one of the many spectroscopic procedures is used for this. What is happening in this extremely wide-ranging field, and what trends are hot right now?

Food is both a basic need and a valuable asset. In Germany, food manufacturers must meet high requirements in terms of safety and product quality. Read about the important contribution microscopic techniques make in quality control and R&D.

Fibre determination is in particular important for the analysis of animal feed. Therefore it reproduces the steps of the digestive process in an animal’s stomach. A new method makes dissolving and filtering the components significantly easier and ensures more reliable, reproducible analysis results.

Employees in a laboratory often have to handle hazardous or easily ignitable substances. What benefits can networked solutions for storage of hazardous substances bring and what do the technical solutions look like in detail?

To clarify whether and when a handgun was fired, forensic scientists search for and analyze Gunshot Residue (GSR) deposits. One highly interesting aspect of GSR is the presence of volatile organic chemical residues, which can offer clues as to when a weapon was fired. An innovative extraction technique based on Headspace Sorptive Extraction (HSSE) and Gerstel Twister has now been shown to extract additional information from spent cartridges.

From morning rush-hour urban air-pollution to ship diesel emissions — organic particulate matter directly affects air quality and health while its analysis is still challenging. A new technological solution for PTR-TOFMS shall now find a remedy.

Rapid developments at all levels of microscopy, such as contrast, illumination, resolution, signal detection and data processing have occurred over the last decades and there is reason to expect that these advances will continue. However, severe limitations in accuracy, reproducibility and throughput are caused by the involvement of humans in all steps of the imaging workflow. It also poses a significant burden and workload for the researcher. To improve this situation is the biggest challenge in automation.

As recently as 60 years ago, it was almost impossible to pipette small amounts of liquid in the microliter range safely and reproducibly. Many breakthroughs, particularly in the fields of molecular and chemical research, would not have been conceivable in the milliliter range.

Water quality plays a significant role in almost every body of water. Its assessment often requires a look at the details, as organisms not visible to the naked eye are important indicators. This makes light microscopy an important tool.

High-attrition rates during clinical development of new cancer therapies still persist. A new 3D ex vivo microfluidics platform shall now enhance cancer drug screening and early development process by creating cancer models which predict clinical outcomes with significantly increased reliability.

Bremen and MS — both linked by a tradition extending over many years. No surprise, then, that one of the most outstanding MS technologies in recent history has made its way in the world from there. Where will this journey take us next?

Quick and straightforward, aqueous size exclusion chromatography (SEC) has become a mainstay for the analysis of protein aggregates in the biopharmaceutical industry. Coupling SEC with advanced detection, such as mass spectrometry, light scattering or surface plasmon resonance, makes it a versatile tool for numerous applications beyond aggregate analysis.

In the race to keep up with new and suspected doping agents, the Centre for Preventive Doping Research at the German Sport University Cologne, Germany is upgrading their laboratory with performance enhancing technologies and automation: The institute is betting on a fully automated Dried Blood Spot (DBS)-LC-MS/MS analysis system.

Tattoo removal using laser radiation can carry health risks depending on the breakdown products formed. Scientists have now shown that pyrolysis GC/MS can be used to simulate the breakdown process and determine the compounds formed from a given ink during laser treatment. Phthalocyanine blue (B15:3), for example, was shown to form a cell poison in the process.

What does a person consist of? Their organs? Their blood? How does life work? Finding the answer to many fundamental questions of humanity would not have been conceivable without the microscope. A technology that was revolutionised when it was put on a scientific foundation for the first time.

Subjects, such as resource optimization or better energy usage, have arrived in the laboratory. What does this mean for the most important separation method, chromatography? An inventory shows the amount of optimization potential in the technology that is more than 100 years old.

Will manual pipettes still be around in 50 years’ time? What challenges lie ahead? What opportunities? Two Eppendorf experts share their views with LP. The conversation was conducted by Dr. Ilka Ottleben.

It's in the genes: A team of Swedish and British scientists have studied the heritability of dog ownership using information from 35,035 twin pairs from the Swedish Twin Registry. The results indicate that an individual’s genetic make-up has a great influence on whether they choose to acquire a dog. Genes appear to account for more than half of the difference in dog ownership.

Lab technicians are highly valued in any lab and often missed dearly when they are on vacation. This article’s purpose is to show the daily GC-MS lab routine through a series of worst case scenarios that a scientist can come across. To reduce the chance of these occurring, processes can be incorporated to improve the lab routine and daily workflow.

Hierzulande gehört Trinkwasser zu den am besten kontrollierten Lebensmitteln überhaupt. Um eine Verunreinigung mit potenziell gesundheitsgefährdenden Bakterien zu überwachen, bedient man sich Kultur-basierter Verfahren. Ein Flaschenhals, der sich nur begrenzt beschleunigen lässt. Ein internationales Forscherteam will dies nun mithilfe von Infrarotlicht ändern.

Entnahmepraxis und Behandlung einer Probe beeinflussen die Aussagekraft und das Resultat deren Analyse. Je weniger manipuliert wird, desto genauer spiegelt das Messergebnis die Wirklichkeit wider. Dies gilt insbesondere auch, wenn der Ort der Beprobung am Grund der Meere liegt. Ein Praxisbeispiel untersucht die Belastung des Meeresbodens mit DDT und ähnlichen umwelt- und gesundheitsschädlichen Verbindungen.

Epigenetische Veränderungen, die mit Übergewicht einhergehen, können schon bei jungen Menschen den Leberstoffwechsel negativ beeinflussen – lange bevor es zu einer Leberverfettung kommt.