Lab Business November/December 2015

David Suzuki Magnificent mushrooms

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Healing Power The Definitive Source For Lab Products, News And Developments

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November/December 2015

Harnessing the body’s own process

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Arthur B. McDonald Canada’s newest Nobel laureate helps solve a mystery

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CONTENTS 16 Dark Ages End As Canada’s new prime minister steps up to the plate, hope for the future of basic scientific research swells.

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By Hermione Wilson

Dalhousie University researcher Paul Gratzer is applying his bioengineering know-how to the wound healing business.

By Hermione Wilson

Nobel Prize-winning physicist Arthur McDonald speaks to us about his decades-spanning research project and what it means.

standards guest editorial 5 Canadian news 6 Lab ware 20 tech watch 22 moments in time 23

Skin in the Game

Arthur b.

McDonald

By robert price

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Do the flip!

Read about the future of 3D bioprinting. agri-BaseD inDustrial BioproDucts driving innovation 6

Big Data

Small companies unlock its potential 10

Bioprinting

The birth of bioprinting leads to a Canadian lab 23

noveMBer/deCeMBer 2015

DaviD Suzuki

Healing Power

Magnificent mushrooms

Harnessing the body’s own process

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The DefiniTive Source for Lab ProDucTS, newS anD DeveLoPmenTS

www.labbusinessmag.com

November/December 2015

november/december 2015

on twitter at @ biolabmag

11 Championing the Business of Biotechnology in Canada

Arthur B. McDonald

Multi-disciplinary research will impact clinical practice soon

3D

Canada’s newest Nobel laureate helps solve a mystery

8

suzuki matters

Bioprinting

On the Web at www.labbusinessmag.com

@

on facebook at /biolabmag

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S

tephen Harper and his mean, muzzled true believers have left Ottawa. We who cheer Harper’s defeat – and the defeat of the anti-rationalism at the core of what passes for conservatism these days – hope for something better from Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government.

From the start, the new PM showed promise. He instituted a Minister of Science and a Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development. Creating two sciencefocused ministries makes an impressive statement of policy direction and, one can hope, will re-engage Canada’s neglected and neutralized scientific establishment.

Among the first orders of business, the new government needs to rejuvenate the government’s support of basic science. Basic science answers the big questions and deepens our understanding of our world. When we know more about how our world works, we can solve bigger problems, ask bigger questions and drive new avenues of creativity.

The new government must also bridge the irrational divide Harper created between science and the rest of society. Science – otherwise known as carefully measured original thought – drives business. It creates newness at a deeper level than so-called “disruptive” businesses have proven themselves capable of. Twitter, Airbnb, and Apple excel at creating consumer conveniences, but that’s about it. Uber, the latest tech darling, undercuts the taxi industry and creates the opportunity for everybody to become a cabbie. Rarely do private businesses like these advance science and technology in new and meaningful ways. Silicon Valley cultivates buzz, but we need to cultivate substance.

Revitalizing basic science is a move many scientists, including Canada’s newest Nobel laureate, Arthur McDonald, have been demanding for years. As McDonald recently explained, innovation is a long, slow, expensive process. “We have to have investment in basic research because you never quite know what of by way of innovation will be of value for the country economically,” he said.

And the new ministers must restore the National Research Council’s mission – from acting as a “concierge” to business to a creator of new knowledge and opportunity. The ministers must, truly and bravely, allow scientists to speak freely so that scientists can contribute to discussions about the problems we face – even if their work contradicts government policy. The ministers must restore funds to the granting agencies that give young scientists career paths, re-establish sensible and scientifically sound environmental protections of our waterways and fisheries, and strengthen the peer-review system in Canada. They must rebuild Library and Archives Canada and Canada’s science libraries so that researchers in every discipline, especially scientists and historians, can know what the past tells us.

The larger project in funding basic research amounts to more than jobs for scientists and sound policy decisions. The larger project – what is really at stake when we talk about funding basic research – is the repudiation of dogma and the refutation of the fundamentalist’s mind-set. We are civilized in part because we make decisions based on what the best evidence tells us. If there is a war against civilizations happening in our world, if our enemy are medieval-minded tyrants who want to erase history and retard the world with a caliphate, then we should double down on knowledge creation and the scientific way of thinking.

With few exceptions, the science girding our modern world grows out of the contemplative, creative, competitive environments of university and government laboratories. Creativity requires time to think, space to work and money to spend. Where we find this money, we don’t yet know. Restoring funding will take time and we should brace ourselves for a struggle in the short-term as we lobby for vitality in the long-term.

The challenges we face, from terrorists to climate change, from an empty drug pipeline to anti-biotic resistance, are huge. Prayers and start-ups won’t deliver big answers. Big answers will come to those who ask big questions. www.labbusinessmag.com

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Canadian NEWS Philips Partners with Mackenzie Health Royal Philips and Mackenzie Health, a regional healthcare provider serving southwest York Region in Ontario, announced a $300-million, 18-year alliance that will advance Mackenzie Health’s medical technology procurement and maintenance programs. As a strategic partner, Mackenzie Health will have early and ongoing access to the latest Philips healthcare technology innovations, including access to Philips expertise in areas such as systems interoperability, diagnostic imaging equipment utilization, radiology practice management, patient-centric design, and alarm management.

Creating Chemistry

Pace of Hospital Research Activity Advances

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ccording to Research Infosource Inc., which released its Canada’s Top 40 Research Hospitals List, research activity at Canada’s leading health research organizations rose by a combined 5% in fiscal 2014 compared with a 1.1% increase in fiscal 2013. Hospitals, hospital networks and health authorities reported that their total research activity increased to $2.38 billion from $2.27 billion in fiscal 2013. In total, 27 institutions reported activity gains against 13 where activity declined. The number of hospital researchers increased 4.5% to 8,572 from 8,205 the prior year.

The leading health research organization was Toronto’s University Health Network, with $303.1 million of research activity, followed by Hamilton Health Sciences ($212.0 million), The Hospital for Sick Children ($199.9 million), McGill University Health Centre ($190.3 million) and B.C.’s Provincial Health Services Authority ($142.4 million). In total, eight organizations reported more than $100 million of research activity, compared with nine the previous year. New to the Top 40 list this year is Ottawa’s Hôpital Montfort.

“Overall, this was a solid year financially for hospital research organizations”, says Ron Freedman, CEO of Research Infosource. “In fact, 11 of the 40 saw double-digit increases in research activity and two-thirds saw some level of growth.”

Research activity growth was strongest at Women’s College Hospital (28.2%), Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital (27.7%), St. Boniface Hospital (20.9%), Hôpital Maissoneuve-Rosemont (19.6%) and Hamilton Health Sciences (16.4%).

Leading the way in research intensity – research income per researcher – was Institut de Cardiologie de Montréal ($705,500 per researcher), closely followed

by Mount Sinai Hospital, Joseph and Wolf Lebovic Health Complex ($663,900), Baycrest ($581,200), University Health Network ($550,100) and Centre for Addiction and Mental Health ($540,300).

In fiscal 2014, Ontario was home to 59% of all research activity, compared with 26.4% in Quebec and 11.2% in British Columbia.

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November/December 2015 Lab Business

BASF Canada and Earth Rangers have expanded BASF Kids’ Lab, a series of hands-on chemistry workshops developed by BASF for students in grades 4 through 6, to rural schools across Canada. Since 2013, the program has reached more than 2,500 students in Canada and has expanded into additional communities with an agriculture-focused workshop. Kids’ Lab invites children to explore the world of chemistry through safe and fun experiments designed to foster an interest in science-related hobbies and, eventually, explore its career possibilities.

Parents Not Discussing Science Education with Kids According to a Spotlight on Science Learning report, almost 90 per cent of Canadian parents believe they are the strongest influence in children’s education pathways, but they are not exerting that influence when it comes to science education. Although 75 per cent of parents think that most future jobs will require a basic understanding of math and science, and believe STEM education is valuable, only 28 per cent of parents polled discuss the value of high school science courses with their children.

Worldwide NEWS Shimadzu Sponsors New Chemistry Lab at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Shimadzu Scientific Instruments (SSI) recently announced the opening of the Shimadzu Laboratory for Advanced Applied and Analytical Chemistry at the University of WisconsinMilwaukee (UWM). The new 2,000-sq. ft. laboratory and office suite is a hub for research across the entire UWM campus, as well as a classroom for teaching the theory and practice of mass spectrometry. The lab, located inside of UWM’s Kenwood Interdisciplinary Research Complex, was made possible by a $1.13 million grant from Shimadzu Scientific Instruments.

EMD Millipore Hosts Virtual Conference EMD Millipore, the Life Science business of Merck KGaA, held its second virtual conference of the year, “A Toolbox for LC-MS Protein Analysis,” on November 17 and 18.

Bringing in EMD Millipore experts from around the world, the conference focused on the fascinating and rapidly expanding field of proteomics, which is drawing the interest of increasing numbers of scientists who work in a variety of environments, including pharmaceutical research and development, academic laboratories, biotech companies, as well as clinical and industrial settings.

2015 Best Places for Clinical Research KMR Group, a leader in analyzing R&D performance data for the biopharmaceutical industry, has released its 2015 Best Places for Clinical Research rankings reports. The report series ranks more than 90 countries on clinical trial performance using data from more than 5,000 trials in 201014. The reports are disease-based and provide a detailed assessment of overall performance based on eight key factors that assess patient access, recruitment, infrastructure and cost of doing business.

New Spectrometer Creates International Standard for Temperature

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esearchers from the University of Adelaide, University of Queensland and University of Western Australia, have come up with a new way to determine Boltzmann’s constant, a number which relates the motion of individual atoms to their temperature.

Published in the journal Nature Communications, the experiments contribute to a worldwide scientific effort in redefining the international unit of temperature: the kelvin. (Zero kelvin or ‘absolute zero’ is the absence of all thermal energy and equivalent to -273.15 C).

“Although temperature is a familiar concept to all of us, remarkably it can only be measured accurately at a handful of locations around the globe,” says project leader, Professor Andre Luiten, Director of the University of Adelaide’s Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing (IPAS), where the experiments were conducted.

The spectrometer measured the speed of individual atoms moving in a gas by a factor of 16 times superior to anything previously demonstrated.

“An atom sitting at rest will absorb light of a particular frequency or colour – if it is moving toward you or away from you then the absorbed light is very slightly changed because of the Doppler effect,” says Luiten. “This is exactly the same effect that makes a police siren sound different depending on whether the car is moving toward you or away. We use a pure laser to measure these changes in light absorption, from which we can infer the speeds of the atoms and the temperature of the gas.”

By conducting the experiments with world-record precision, the team came across a completely unexpected effect. The light has an apparent effect on the atoms themselves: the measurement itself ends up changing the result. One of the breakthroughs of the project was to develop an explanation of how this happened and ensuring that it didn’t affect the result.

The development means any laboratory in the world with appropriate skills and equipment could accurately measure temperature. Further development could deliver this capability to industry – something never before possible.

www.labbusinessmag.com

7

Suzuki MATTERS

By David Suzuki with contributions from Ian Hanington

The many marvels of the

mysterious mushroom U

Dr. David Suzuki is a scientist, broadcaster, author, and co-founder of the David Suzuki Foundation. Ian Hanington is the David Suzuki Foundation’s Senior Editor.

Learn more at www.davidsuzuki.org.

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ntil 1969, biologists thought mushrooms and other fungi were plants. They’re actually more closely related to animals, but with enough differences that they inhabit their own distinct classification.

This and more recent findings about these mysterious organisms illustrate how much we have yet to learn about the complexities of the natural world. New research reveals mushrooms can even help plants communicate, share nutrients and defend themselves against disease and pests.

There’s far more to mushrooms than the stems and caps that poke above ground. Most of the organism is a mass of thin underground threads called mycelia. These filaments form networks that help plants, including trees, connect to each other, through structures called mycorrhizae.

Scientists believe about 90 per cent of landbased plants are involved in this mutually beneficial relationship with fungi. Plants deliver food to the mushroom, created by photosynthesis, and the filaments, in turn, assist the plants to absorb water and minerals and to produce chemicals that help them resist disease and other threats. And, of course, a myriad of other life forms benefit from the healthy plants.

The structure and function of the mycelial networks and their ability to facilitate communication between physically separated plants led mycologist Paul Stamets to call them “Earth’s natural Internet.” He’s also noted their similarity to brain cell networks. According to a Discover article, “Brains and mycelia grow new connections, or prune existing ones, in response to environmental stimuli. Both use an array of chemical messengers to transmit signals throughout a cellular web.”

Research by Suzanne Simard at the University of British Columbia found that Douglas fir and paper birch trees transfer carbon back and forth through the mycelia, and other research shows they can also transfer nitrogen and phosphorus. Simard believes

November/December 2015 Lab Business

older, larger trees help younger trees through this process. She found that the smaller trees’ survival often depends on large “mother trees” and that cutting down these tree elders leaves seedlings and smaller trees more vulnerable.

Researchers in China found trees attacked by harmful fungi are able to warn other trees through the mycelia networks, and University of Aberdeen biologists found they can also warn other plants of aphid attacks.

It all adds to our growing understanding of how interconnected everything on our planet is, and how our actions – such as cutting down large “mother” trees – can have unintended negative consequences that cascade through ecosystems.

Scientists are also finding that fungi can be useful to humans beyond providing food and helping us make cheese, bread, beer and wine. Stamets believes mushrooms can be employed to clean up oil spills, defend against weaponized smallpox, break down toxic chemicals like PCBs and decontaminate areas exposed to radiation.

He credits his interest in fungi to another fascinating aspect of many mushrooms around the world: their hallucinogenic properties. During college, Stamets spent a lot of time in the Ohio woods, where he first tried psilocybin mushrooms.

They had a profound effect on him, and after his first experience, his persistent stutter went away.

He later quit a logging job, because the work was destroying mushroom habitat, and began studying fungi at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington.

Since then, his research has led to fascinating discoveries of multiple possible purposes for fungi, including nuclear decontamination, water filtration, biofuels, increasing agricultural yields, pest control and medicines.

Research is also shedding light on potential benefits of the psychotropic properties of mushrooms, such as the 144 species that contain psilocybin. Indigenous people have long used hallucinogenic mushrooms for ceremonial, spiritual and psychological purposes – and with good reason, it turns out. Psilocybin has been shown to improve the brain’s connectivity. Researchers are finding the chemical can help combat depression, anxiety, fear and other disorders, and increase creativity and openness to new experience. This makes them potentially beneficial for post-traumatic stress, addiction and palliative care treatments.

We humans have made a lot of technological and scientific advances, and this sometimes gives us the sense that we’re above or outside of nature, that we can do things better. Sometimes it takes a fascinating lifeform like a mushroom to shake us from our hubris and show us how much we have yet to learn about the world and our place in it. LB

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Lab PROFILE

Skin in the Game DeCell Technologies is improving the odds for chronic wound treatment

story by

Hermione Wilson

www.labbusinessmag.com

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Paul Gratzer is in the tissue business.

The associate professor at Dalhousie University’s School of Biomedical Engineering has spent two decades trying to detangle the process by which soft tissues like skin, blood vessels and ligaments repair themselves on the cellular level.

At his Dalhousie lab, Gratzer and his team work to understand the wound healing process and explore bioengineering solutions when the process goes wrong. Meanwhile, at Gratzer’s commercial lab, part of his biotechnology venture, DeCell Technologies, he works to get those solutions into the hands of clinicians.

Gratzer splits his time between two labs; one is the Matrix Engineering Lab at Dalhousie’s Faculty of Dentistry, and the other, where his DeCell Technologies work takes place, is located in a Nova Scotia early stage business incubator, the Innovacorp Enterprise Centre.

The work Gratzer does at the Matrix lab mainly concerns exploring cellular communication with the extracellular matrix, which basically acts as a cellular support structure. The extracellular matrix is often referred to as a scaffold.

Cell Communication When that scaffold is damaged, cells automatically rush into the breach to knit that structure together. That’s what they’re supposed to do anyways. In certain circumstances, in the case of burn injuries or chronic ulcers, that natural healing process is interrupted.

With diabetic foot ulcers, where nerve damage and blood flow issues cause wounds to develop on the feet, the body becomes locked in a destructive pattern of inflammation and infection.

“What I’m trying to do is understand why the cells in the body respond the way that they do and what kind of signals they need to see to function, not only to regenerate tissue, but also to regenerate what I call functional tissue; true tissue that operates like the tissue that was there and became damaged,” Gratzer says.

On the commercial side, at his DeCell lab, Gratzer is applying one of the techniques he developed at his research lab to solve the problem of diabetic foot ulcers. It’s called decellularization and it allows skin grafts to be used as living bandages to encourage healthy healing.

“It’s kind of like giving you an egg and saying, ‘Can you remove the yolk and the white without disrupting the egg shell,’” Gratzer says. “It’s a balancing act. You try to remove and extract out as much of the cellular material as you can to de-identify it, but at the same time you don’t want to disrupt the natural matrix that’s there.”

Decellularization Part of what makes Gratzer’s decellularization technique unique is the fact that he has fully automated the process. The donated skin tissue is stripped of all cellular components by an automated processing system and sterilized of any lingering bacteria.

DeCell Technologies is applying for a patent for its system, so Gratzer wouldn’t go into great detail about it other than to say it is essentially “an apparatus that is controlled by a computer to apply the different solutions at the right times and under the right conditions of time, agitation and temperature to get the proper interaction to be able to extract those components out.”

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November/December 2015 Lab Business

Lab PROFILE

DeCell Technologies research associate Karl Conlan works on the decellularization machine. Photo credit: DeCell Technologies

www.labbusinessmag.com

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The DermGEN product is as soft and pliable as natural skin.

Photo credit: DeCell Technologies

First, the tissue is placed in a solution that “essentially blows up the cells” by forcing them to retain water until they explode, leaving cell fragments behind.

The tissue is then treated with different washes, or “solutions made to extract out the various components of the cell while maintaining the extracellular matrix,” Gratzer says. The solutions contain ingredients such as salt, surfactin (a very powerful surfactant commonly used as an antibiotic), solvent-like surfactant (used in the preparation of blood plasma products), and enzymes that remove any traces of DNA and RNA. “If we remove all the cells from the tissue, it removes, essentially, the donor identification,” Gratzer says. “What’s remaining is a scaffold that is comprised of the things the cells have laid down, the structural proteins and that sort of thing, that give you the properties of the tissue but without the living components.”

The resulting skin tissue, called DermGEN (as in dermal regeneration),

14

November/December 2015 Lab Business

can be implanted in the patient body without fear of rejection. The patient’s body should then be able to recognize the scaffold as something to be regenerated, to form a new tissue.

DeCell Technologies is currently conducting clinical trials with the DermGEN product and the results, according to Gratzer, have been promising.

He envisions his decellularization being applied to other types of chronic wounds and surgical applications.

But Gratzer also wants to better understand wants to understand why his decellularization tissue works so well.

“We still don’t understand the whole idea of what it is within that material, whether it’s structural, biochemical, is something with the spatial makeup of the components in it that the cells respond to, that give that positive response,” Gratzer says. “If we could get that, then maybe we could simplify it ourselves and recreate it without even using any type of donated material.”

Paul Gratzer, Associate Professor at Dalhousie University’s School of Biomedical Engineering.

Lab PROFILE

Gratzer and Conlan work in the DeCell lab at the Innovacorp Enterprise Centre. Photo credit: DeCell Technologies Sean Margueratt, Co-founder of DeCell.

Skin Tight Like any product, DermGEN’s packaging plays an important role in its effectiveness. Once the thorough decellularization and sterilization process is finished, the decellularization machine seals the tissue in a package, ready for storage and use by a physician.

This whole process happens within a closed system, so that the tissue is never contaminated by outside interference.

The skin is not frozen or dehydrated in order to preserve it – Gratzer says the tissue should be viable for up to five years, something he is testing – which means it retains the original texture and consistency of skin. He says surgeons have commented favourably on the “pliability and suturability” of DeCell skin.

“When you implant [the dermis] into the patient, into their wound, you interact with the normal wound healing process and the cells are actually attracted from the surrounding skin, and

the blood vasculature, to come in and regenerate the tissue,” Gratzer says. “You don’t even have to seed it [with a patient’s own cells], you use it as an attractant and a template to attract the right cells and then guide them to regenerate the tissue.”

After many years, Gratzer has managed to balance his work in both the commercial and research spheres. He continues to do his basic research at the Matrix Engineering Lab, trying to understand the extracellular matrix and cell interaction with that matrix, and exploring techniques that use naturally derived material to promote regenerative response from cells, in culture and in situ (in the body).

But he takes great satisfaction in seeing his research getting into the hands of clinical end users and benefitting patients.

“Personally, as a researcher in biomedical engineering, it’s really satisfying to finally see an idea you’ve

been working on for 20-odd years finally go on to a patient and actually help them.” LB

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15

One-On-One

“By determining that [neutrinos] have a finite mass and change from one type to another, we’ve been able to uncover that the Standard Model [of particle physics] needs to be extended in order to address these questions of what the origin of neutrino mass is.”

– Arthur B. McDonald

Photo credit: K. McFarlane. Queen's University/SNOLAB.

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November/December 2015 Lab Business

One-On-One

Above left: SNOLAB is located 2 km underground in the Vale Creighton Mine near Sudbury, ON. Above right photo credit: Bernard Clark. Queen's University/SNOLAB.

Arthur B. McDonald

Shares Nobel Prize for Work with Neutrinos A mystery at the heart of fundamental physics is solved story by

Hermione Wilson

www.labbusinessmag.com

17

One-On-One

D

muon neutrinos traversed the Earth, they exhibited an r. Arthur B. McDonald, a Canadian physicist oscillation pattern as they changed into other neutrino from Queen’s University, recently won the 2015 types, another clear indication of the fact that neutrinos are Nobel Prize in Physics (along with Japanese oscillating and changing their type and thereby have mass,” scientist Takaaki Kajita), for his contribution to particle McDonald says. physics and our understanding of neutrinos. In 2014, Three decades later, with the help of SNOLAB’s neutrino you may recall that LAB Business magazine (January/ detector, which is the size of a 10-storey building, the joint February 2014) took a tour of the one-of-a-kind Sudbury team of scientists arrived at an answer to the mystery of the Neutrino Observatory laboratory (SNOLAB) where missing solar neutrinos. much of McDonald’s work took place.

“By determining that [neutrinos] have a finite mass and “There are other laboratories where it might have change from one type to another, we’ve been able to uncover been conceivable, but at the time we were doing the that the Standard Model [of particle physics] needs to be experiment, [SNOLAB was] the deepest laboratory by a extended in order to address these questions of what the fair amount,” McDonald says. “The ability to screen out origin of neutrino mass is,” McDonald says. “It’s a nice cosmic radiation to a very large degree was essential in signpost toward a more complete understanding of nature at terms of the measurements we were making.” a very basic level.” LB The measurements McDonald is referring to concern neutrinos that are produced by the sun. Neutrinos are one of the building blocks of our universe, part of an exclusive club of fundamental particles that cannot be further subdivided (quarks and electrons are the other two). Neutrinos play an important role in the It all started with an error. Scientists were trying to understand how formation of stars, the sun burns and generates energy, and central to understanding the supernovas, and the make-up physics of how that works was the accurate measurement of neutrinos. of human beings themselves.

Dr. Arthur B. McDonald SNOLAB is one of the few places scientists can observe the neutrinos as they arrive on Earth.

It all started with an error, McDonald says. Scientists were trying to understand how the sun burns and generates energy, and central to understanding the physics of how that works was the accurate measurement of neutrinos. The process by which solar neutrinos are formed in the core of the sun is called nuclear fusion and it could become a source of power if we can figure out how to reproduce it here on Earth.

But scientists came to the conclusion that either their calculations about how many neutrinos were being produced by the sun were off, or these solar neutrinos were changing as they reached Earth. If the latter were true, it would mean that neutrinos were not without mass as they were previously thought to be.

In the 1980s, McDonald was part of an international research project that sought to solve this conundrum.

“We started with 16 people in 1984, but ended up with over 270 authors on our paper,” he recalls.

While McDonald and his team studied electron neutrinos and their ability to change into other types, Kajita’s team at the University of Tokyo focused on measuring neutrinos produced by cosmic rays Above: DEAP-1-Dagoberto Contrera, SNOLAB. Right page: SNOLAB is one of the few places scientists can observe interacting with the atmosphere. neutrinos as they arrive on Earth.

“What [the Japanese team] observed was, as those

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November/December 2015 Lab Business

One-On-One

www.labbusinessmag.com

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Lab WARE GC ORBITRAP PROVIDES COMPREHENSIVE CHARACTERIZATION OF SAMPLES

Bring the power of the first-ever combination of high-resolution gas chromatography (GC) and high-resolution/accurate-mass (HR/AM) Orbitrap mass spectrometry to your laboratory. The Thermo Scientific Q Exactive GC Orbitrap GC-MS/MS system provides comprehensive characterization of samples in a single analysis for the highest confidence in compound discovery, identification, and quantitation. This system offers the quantitative power of a GC triple quadrupole MS combined with the high precision, full scan HR/AM capabilities only available in combination with Thermo Scientific Orbitrap technology. www.thermoscientific.com/en/home.html

Protect Personnel from Chemical Vapours

The new Air Science Vent-Box ductless filtration system is designed to protect laboratory personnel from chemical vapours found inside of standalone chemical safety cabinets.

The Vent-Box utilizes the Air Science Multiplex Filtration System, a unique configuration that includes a pre-filter and main filter to create a chemical, physical or combination architecture to adsorb, neutralize or trap the target chemicals or particulate while constant negative pressure removes vapours and particulates from the cabinet's interior. Fumes are pulled via a flexible hose connected to the cabinet and clean, filtered air is returned to the laboratory, eliminating the need for external ducting and minimizing loss of treated, conditioned air from the facility. www.airscience.com/vent-box-ductless-filtration

SKYSCAN 1275 SOFTWARE FEATURES 2-D/3-D IMAGE ANALYSIS

POTENTIOMETRIC TITRATOR HAS RELIABLE HIGHSPEED COMMUNICATIONS

JM Science’s Potentiometric Titrator is capable of running multiple titrator stations that easily allow the end user to do different types of titrations including potentiometric, photometric, polarization, and conductometric titrations in parallel. Add a C-2012 Automatic Sample Changer to increase sample throughput, automate pH calibration and wash and prepare the electrodes for the next sample analysis. The sample changer also accommodates a wide selection of test tubes, beakers and conical flasks and is equipped with an auto shutdown function. www.jmscience.com

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November/December 2015 Lab Business

The new SKYSCAN 1275 highly automated, self-optimizing desktop X-ray microtomograph puts imaging into the hands of materials and life scientists in both research and industrial applications. It takes advantage of new X-ray source technology and efficient flat-panel detectors to reduce scan time to just a few minutes, without compromising image quality. The SKYSCAN 1275 software features 2-D/3-D image analysis, as well as a realistic 3-D visualization that employs recent developments in reconstruction algorithms, accelerated by new powerful graphics cards to give an additional gain in performance and speed. Push-button operation with a preselected sequence of actions, including scanning, reconstruction and volume rendering, means that even routine users can successfully obtain high-quality results. www.bruker.com

Lab WARE VENTILATOR IS DESIGNED TO MAINTAIN VERSATILITY

Harvard Apparatus introduced the new VentElite ventilator for rodents. The VentElite was designed for small animal research applications and is intended for use on subjects ranging in size from mice to guinea pigs. Designed to maintain versatility and ease of use while fostering safe and physiologically accurate mechanical ventilation conditions, the VentElite utilizes advanced piston/cylinder and valve assemblies, combined with microprocessor controlled actuation mechanisms to precisely control respiration profiles.

Features of the VentElite include manual or programmable Sigh, Inspiratory or Expiratory Hold, adjustable I:E, built in PEEP, audible alarms, and a realtime graphical representation of the detected pressure. www.harvardbioscience.ca/HAC-Home.html

LOW TURBULENCE OVEN PROTECTS DELICATE SAMPLES

The NCL LabStrong Gravity Oven offers significant improvements in performance over existing technology. The oven offers industry-leading temperature uniformity performance at an exceptional price point. The NCL LabStrong Gravity Oven features superior performance capabilities. Gentle drying and heating, with low turbulence protects delicate samples where a fan airflow would disturb them. An advanced 4.3’’ display with touch screen graphical control provides intuitive operation with precise temperature control. Ideal for labs where space is at a premium, the lightweight, compact oven conserves benchtop space and fits in most fume hoods. www.labstrong.com

THERMOWORKS THERMAPEN MK4 IS EVEN MORE INTUITIVE THAN PREVIOUS MODELS

With full readings in only two to three seconds and advanced technology, the new Thermapen Mk4 is even more intuitive than previous models. Hold it in any direction and the display automatically rotates right-side-up so you can read it in any position. The Mk4 knows when it’s dark and turns on the backlight for you, making it easy to read at dusk or in complete darkness with maximum battery life. Or, just touch the sensor window any time with your finger and the display lights up. Set it down, and Sleep Mode saves battery power. Pick the Mk4 up, and it turns on again instantly.

Close the probe when you’re done cooking and the unit stays off for storage. www.thermoworks.com

Tech WATCH

Shakers CO2 Resistant Shaker Has Small Footprint

A small footprint and minimal heat make Thermo Scientific’s CO2 resistant shakers ideal for use in CO2 incubators. The shaker’s specially treated mechanical components protect up to 20% CO2 and 95% humidity conditions, and its stainless steel construction protects against corrosive CO2 gassing conditions. A convenient external control box with LED display allows for easy adjustments without opening the chamber door. The CO2 resistant shaker functions using magnetic power, which eliminates the need to replace belts. www.thermoscientific.com

Incu-Shaker Maintains Precise Temperatures

Benchmark Scientific’s Incu-Shaker 10L (available in Canada from Mandel Scientific) is designed to handle heavy workloads and continuous use.

Proprietary heat distribution technology ensures that temperatures are maintained precisely throughout the chamber. Even in the corners of the chamber, the selected temperature is precisely maintained within 0.25 per cent.

A standard rubber mat platform is also included, ideal for use with tissue culture flasks, petri dishes, staining trays and other flat vessels. www.mandel.ca

Compact Shaker is User-friendly

IKA’s new KS 3000 i incubator shaker is user-friendly with its large LED display that shows speed, temperature and time settings. A circulation fan ensures the temperature is evenly distributed and that no condensate forms on the surface.

A wide range of attachments allows the compact shaker to accommodate vessels of almost any size and shape. The PID controller enables the use of external PT1000 temperature sensors, thus allowing for more precise temperature control. KS 3000 ic also features a built-in cooling coil for connection to an external cooling unit. www.ika.com

Variable Speed Orbital Shaker offers Several Automated Processes

Torrey Pines Scientific’s SC25XT is fully programmable with five-program memory and with a temperature range from -20 C to +100 C. The variable speed orbital shaker mixes samples while controlling sample temperature to 1 C. The SC25XT includes a 30-day countdown timer with alarm and auto-off, data logger, and RS232 I/O port for data logging or controlling the unit from a computer. The device also uses accessory sample blocks that are able to accommodate centrifuge tubes, vials, PCR tubes and plates of all shapes. The unit is Peltier-driven for chilling and heating. www.torreypinesscientific.com

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November/December 2015 Lab Business

Moments In time

Th e S earch fo r

Neutrino Frederick Reines and Clyde L. Cowan. Photo Credit: General Electric Co.

In 1956, Clyde L. Cowan and Frederick Reines successfully detected the presence of antineutrinos, nearly 25 years after Wolfgang Pauli first theorized their existence.

Equipped with two tanks of water, approximately 200 litres total, and 40 kg of cadmium chloride (CdCl2), which emits a detectable gamma ray when it absorbs a neutron, Cowan and Reines recorded their findings at the Savannah River Plant near Augusta, Georgia over the course of several months. During this time, the Cowan-Reines experiment documented about three neutrinos per hour, providing definitive proof of neutrino existence, a discovery that would later earn them the Nobel Prize in 1995. LB

www.labbusinessmag.com

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FB Essence

NEW LAB PROMOTION

BUY 6, GET 3 FREE! Promo part # MP3100-500 (standard) or MP3100-500H (heat inactivated) Promotion expires December 31, 2016

Contact your VWR Sales Representative for more information.

1.800.932.5000 / ca.vwr.com

FB Essence is a nutritionally rich, cost-effective alternative to Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS) containing FBS, Bovine Calf Serum, Equine Serum, and a proprietary blend of supplements, vitamins, minerals, and growth factors.

FB Essence is ideal for primary cell lines and is proven effective for suspension, adherent, and “finicky” cell lines. FB Essence offers superior product performance and quality, low endotoxin and hemoglobin levels, and features ISIA certified traceability and seal of quality. FB Essence is 100% US origin.

PRODUCT SPECIFICATIONS •

100 % US origin

•

Triple 0.1 μm sterile filtered

•

Endotoxin: <20 EU/mL

•

•

Hemoglobin: <25 mg/dL

•

9CFR 113.53 Virus, Sterility, Mycoplasma testing Biochemical Assay & Electrophoretic Profile ISIA certified traceability & seal of quality

•

Collected at USDA-approved facilities

•

Long term price stability

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Single-use filtration technology

•

Process

Size, mL

Cat. No.

Unit

None

50

10805-184

Each

Heat Inactivated

50

10799-384

Each

None

500

10803-034

Each

Heat Inactivated

500

10799-390

Each

* Gamma irradiation available upon request.

SAME QUALITY PRODUCT. NEW LIFE SCIENCE BRAND.