It is also common knowledge that pipetting regularly increases the risk of developing Repetitive Strain Injuries. By applying Good Pipetting Practice in your lab you can help to prevent these risks.

One way to help reduce the repetition of pipetting is to simply take frequent breaks every 20 or 30 minutes to stretch your shoulders, arms and hands. Especially if you spend your coffee and lunch breaks texting on your phone – your thumbs will never get a break! To help you with your daily stretches Anachem are offering you this easy & quick routine for your hands, arms, and shoulders. It's been put together by stretching authority Bob Anderson and by combining it with Anachem's Good Pipetting Posture poster...

GPE Scientific are pleased to announce the promotion of Hannah Neville and Patrick Delaney onto the Board of Directors.

Hannah Neville has been promoted to Director from her role as Sales and Office Manager. Hannah started working at GPE in 2002 as an Office Junior, over the years Hannah has developed her knowledge of the corporate side of the business as well as an exceptional understanding of the company’s product base. Hannah progressed from Office Junior to an NMR Sales Representative, travelling around the UK and liaising with clients to build relationships and develop lucrative leads for the business.....

Analox Sensor Technologies Ltd, have appointed Presearch as their Partner for the UK. Under the agreement Presearch will be responsible for the Sales and Service for the Analox range of gas sensors in the industrial sector.

Home Office figures reveal massive 8% rise in the use of animals in scientific research

Home Office figures released today showing an 8% rise in the number of procedures conducted using animals in scientific research in 2012 make for ‘immensely distressing and upsetting news’, according to the Dr Hadwen Trust for Humane Research (DHT). In 2012, over 4.1 million procedures were carried out using 4 million animals such as mice, cats, dogs, birds and horses. This is an increase of over 317,000 procedures from 2011...

New website designed as an easy point of reference for Stomacher^® applications and protocols 

Seward Limited, founding manufacturer and developer of the world leading, patented Stomacher^® Laboratory Paddle Blender range, has launched a new, fully refreshed website. This is designed as a readily accessible point of reference for customers seeking assistance in sample preparation for microbiological analysis in the food, life science and environmental sectors. New to the Seward website includes a Resource Centre to help visitors identify how the Stomacher® may be used. In addition, user guides and technical data are available for download, with useful videos demonstrating various routine protocols...

Nanounity announces the public launch of new characterization tools and techniques for the microscopy community. Products from Pemtron & Delmic will debut at the annual 2013 Microscopy & Microanalysis Conference & Exhibition to be held in Indianapolis, August 4-8. The company will be presenting exciting new products of manufacturers from the USA, Korea and Europe.

New instrumentation, tools and techniques, will be featured on the Nanounity booth, #828, at this year's annual M&M meeting being held in Indianapolis, August 4-8, 2013. The Pemtron SEMART™ PS-250 scanning electron microscope (SEM) will be making its Nanounity US debut. This intermediate microscope provides users with quick and easy operation offering high performance at a reasonable price, a level that a user might expect to pay at least twice to own. With the power of the PS-230, the PS250 allows users to work with larger samples up to 140 mm while retaining 3 nm spatial resolution. Users may add optional EBSD (Electron Detector Back Scattered) and EDS (Energy Dispersive Spectrometer) for more comprehensive analytical performance...

HORIBA UK Ltd, Medical Division’s on-going partnership with Spire Healthcare, the UK’s second largest group of private hospitals, continues to go from strength to strength, as demonstrated by a new case study. 

It highlights last summer’s London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, during which, an ABX Pentra 80 haematology analyser was used within the Olympic Village Polyclinic by Spire who managed the on-site pathology services. These provided 24-hour healthcare support to an extremely diverse temporary community the size of a large town! The new case study outlining how HORIBA UK and Spire Healthcare supported the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Since the London 2012 Olympics were heralded as one of the most sustainable, Spire was required to reflect this ethos when setting-up its laboratory and to not purchase new equipment when kitting it out...

BBI Solutions, a world leader in immunoassay development and contract manufacturing, will launch its unique range of Recombinant Fab Monoclonal Antibodies on booth #3363 at the American Association for Clinical Chemistry’s (AACC) Annual Meeting and Clinical Lab Expo, on July 28-August 31, 2013, in Houston, Texas.

These matched antibodies pairs, developed using proprietary phage display selection and the Luminex platform, exhibit sub-nanomolar affinities, exceptional sensitivity, and provide assay developers with clinically relevant performance characteristics to 34 biomarkers, with more in development...

The global pharmaceutical industry is facing many challenges and uncertainties as companies strive to align their businesses with the key trends shaping the global marketplace.

Revenues are coming under increasing pressure as a consequence of pricing controls caused by healthcare reforms and austerity measures, increased competition, and challenges in bringing new drugs and other products to market. So, what are the most important decisions senior management will need to make to respond to these pressures?..

£3.8M investment in global R&D pays off as product sales grow over 20% 

TTP Labtech, global developer and manufacturer of innovative automated laboratory equipment, has today reported details of its success in 2012, as well as its growth plans for 2013.Continuing its track record of pioneering automation drug discovery products, TTP Labtech’s £3.8M investment in R&D and entrance into new markets paid off as product sales for 2012 were up over 20 percent compared to the year previous, despite the challenging economy. This progress was driven by launching products into new markets, including biological sample storage and liquid handling for molecular biology applications, as well as continued growth in the sale of established products...

BioTek congratulates Holly Smith and the Dodge County Dairy Testing Association in Juneau, Wisconsin for winning a new 405™ Touch Microplate Washer with Verify™ Technology! Ms. Smith was randomly selected from all qualified contest entrants.

"I entered the contest because we are looking into offering a variety of ELISA-based assays, and could use another plate washer to push us into that direction," noted Ms. Smith. "And we're a cooperative, so anything that helps the lab also helps our customers, which is the best part!" Ms. Smith is a lab manager for a DHIA-certified component and diagnostic lab, testing for butterfat, proteins, and other milk components, and also running diagnostic tests such as the Johne's test, mastitis PCR, and more. The 405 Touch will be used for ELISA assays, and allow additional tests to be added to their services...

Xmark Media the organisers of Photonex, the UK's showcase photonics event dedicated to applied optical equipment, biophotonics, fibre optics, lasers, sensing, vision & LIGHT announces the 2013 event. This will be held on the 16 & 17^th October at the visitor-friendly Ricoh Arena in Coventry.

Photonics finds ever more uses in research, industry and the consumer environment. Photonics technologies are of increasing importance to scientific research and for industry. Its use is growing by the day as is the Photonex 2013 conference and exhibition. Photonex organisers, Xmark Media, report that there will be a larger exhibit this year featuring an increasingly diverse range of products & services which will ensure the event continues to attract visitors from around the world...

JPK Instruments, a world-leading manufacturer of nanoanalytic instrumentation for research in life sciences and soft matter, report on the success of the fifth international symposium on the applications of optical tweezers and related technologies in the life sciences.

Held in Berlin, over 60 delegates enjoyed excellent presentations for an international group of speakers. This year's symposium was held on the 18^th June in Berlin at the excellent Palisa De/Umspannwerk Ost. A sweltering Berlin welcomed over sixty scientists from around the world to discuss their results and share scientific knowledge in a relaxed and informal atmosphere. NanoBioVIEWS™ is the name of a series of international meetings initiated by JPK Instruments to further the scientific knowledge exchange on instrumentation and applications of nanotechnology in the life sciences... 

Statement by Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science, on the conclusion of negotiations on Horizon 2020      

After many hours of intense talks, the Irish Presidency, the European Parliament's negotiators and the European Commission have concluded negotiations on the Horizon 2020 package. The package will now be submitted to both the Council and to the European Parliament, where it will be brought forward to a plenary session of the European Parliament...

At Field Based Chemistry Europe, Dr Tim Cheeseright presented a pre-release of Cresset’s new Activity Miner module. The groundbreaking new science in Activity Miner helps researchers optimize their leads by identifying the key 3D structural and electrostatic changes that impact molecular activity. 

Activity Miner explores the structure activity landscape of a set of molecules. For each pair of molecules, the difference between them in electrostatics, shape and structure is compared to the difference in activity. A small change in structure or electrostatics that results in a large change in activity is known as an activity cliff. Conversely, large structural changes resulting in little or no change in activity indicate bioisosteres. In each case, the comparison indicates an area of interest that merits further research...

Placement student, David Blaney achieves UK Life Sciences Placement of the Year award

Oxford Gene Technology (OGT), provider of innovative genetics research and biomarker solutions to advance molecular medicine, is proud to announce the achievements of placement student David Blaney. Following a nomination by the company, David earned this year’s BBSRC-sponsored Placement of the Year award. The award was part of the inaugural Cogent UK Life Science Skills Awards event, which took place on the 16^th May and saw winners take to the stage to receive awards across ten categories...

Dates Confirmed for Forensics Europe Expo 2014, an Event to Connect the Entire Forensics Industry.

Clarion Defence and Security are pleased to announce Forensics Europe Expo 29-30 April 2014, Olympia, London. Forensics Europe Expo is the premier dedicated international forum for the entire forensics sector and supply chain to source forensic products, equipment and services, as well as providing the definitive source of education, best practice, training and networking. Forensic Professionals are requested to add the show dates, 29-30 April 2014, into their diary today...

3P Biopharmaceuticals will participate in the European research project FLUTCORE, financed by the European Union 7^th Framework Programme (FP7). The consortium is comprised of several prestigious companies and research centers specialized in influenza virus research.

The European consortium will be led by iQur Ltd., which is a biotech company based in London, whose research into the tandem core™ vaccine platform forms the basis of the science behind the project. Their vaccine platform has been shown to generate powerful immune responses to several pathogens and this consortium will optimize their influenza candidate vaccine for use in the clinical setting.

Neogen’s ANSR™ for Salmonella has been validated and approved in accordance with the current  and stringent criteria of a NF Validation study carried out according to the EN ISO 16140 standard.

This new validation (NF Validation by AFNOR certification NEO 35/02-0513) follows the kit’s initial approval by AOAC International and testifies to Neogen’s dedication to increasing its line of accredited pathogen test kits for accurate and rapid results with minimal steps for users. The ANSR system uses an innovative isothermal DNA amplification process and fluorescent molecular beacon technology for detection of the pathogen target...

Dolomite expertise brings microfluidic product to market

Fledgling spin-out company Drop-Tech has turned to microfluidics specialist Dolomite for its product development and fabrication skills to help productize the advanced and innovative Robo­Drop™ technology into the Mitos Dropix, a droplet-on-demand sampler that is set to make it easy to produce extremely miniaturized droplet compartments with excellent control over their contents. Access to this new high-throughput screening format will prove invaluable in basic research, drug discovery and diagnostics applications...

FLIR Systems has announced the release of a new range of thermal imaging cameras optimised for industrial R&D applications including tyre / brake testing, on and through glass measurements, welding / soldering processes and fast moving process control applications.

FLIR A3500sc / A6500sc series thermal imaging cameras incorporate a cooled 3-5 micron MW-IR detector making R&D applications that need better image quality, more sensitivity and a higher frame rate routine. Achieving a high thermal sensitivity  of <25 mK - FLIR A3500sc / A6500sc series  cameras are able to capture the finest image details and temperature difference information...

Nanounity announces their appointment to distribute the Pemtron range of scanning electron microscopes. The compact Pemtron system has been designed to bridge the gap between tabletop and full size tungsten SEMs.

Tabletop SEMs are inexpensive and easy to use compared to standard size SEMs but have limited performance and capability such as small sample sizes, lower magnifications and lower resolution. Full size SEMs would normally provide better imaging performance and more analytical capability but generally require more knowledge to operate and have a higher cost of maintenance. The Pemtron PS-230 and PS-250 SEMs address the gap between these two types of SEM product, offering competitive prices compared with higher end tabletop SEMs, are easy to use and have a low cost of maintenance while equalling or exceeding the performance of a full size SEM...