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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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

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.

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?

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.

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.