metrology

I recently finished updating one of InnovATEBIO’s Courses-in-a-Box, Basic Laboratory Methods in a Regulated Environment . This course introduces students to fundamental laboratory methods that preprofessional biotechnologists must master. Over the years, my colleagues and I have tried to identify the most basic concepts and skills that our students require to be successful in various biotech workplaces. One of the first skills that we identified is the ability to prepare aqueous solutions. The box below is an interesting example of why the proper preparation of aqueous solutions should never be taken for granted. As summarized in... Read more

I introduced the previous blog about our InnovATEBIO webinar ( To Reduce Variability/Enhance Reproducibility: Begin at the Beginning ) with a story about pH measurement. In the experience described in that blog, I was trying to measure the pH of a difficult solution, one with a high pH and containing urea. As it turns out, problems with pH measurement have continued to bubble up periodically in my life, even when my knowledge of such measurements is considerably more sophisticated than it was long ago. The table below shows data from a team of my... Read more

In May, my colleague, Jeanette Mowery, and I presented an InnovATEBIO webinar: To Reduce Variability/Enhance Reproducibility: Begin at the Beginning . This is the first of two blogs about that webinar.

Before discussing the webinar, I’ll share a personal story. Many years ago I was thrilled to land a postdoc position in a cancer research laboratory where I worked on a project involving the role of DNA adducts in initiating breast cancer. One of the reagents that I required had a pH of 10, and it included a relatively high concentration of urea. This reagent frustrated... Read more