Laboratory Testing Blog

Good Laboratory Practice is defined in the OECD Guidelines as “a quality system concerned with the organizational process and the conditions under which non-clinical health and environmental safety studies are planned, performed, monitored, recorded, archived and reported.”  The purpose of Good Laboratory Practices is to promote the development of quality test data and provide a tool to ensure a sound approach to the management of laboratory studies, including conduct, reporting and archiving.

Plants respond to several environmental stresses such as pathogen attack, mechanical or herbivorous insect-driven wounding and the presence of pollutants by the synthesis of secondary metabolites that mediate interplant communication for defense responses.  Among these signalling molecules are phytohormones: jasmonic acid (JA), salicylic acid (SA) and abscisic acid (ABA).  They are considered to be the major regulators of plant defense responses.  The role of salicylic acid in influencing plant resistance to pathogens (aphids, bacteria, fungi) is well documented, whereas jasmonic acid is commonly believed to play an important role in plant responses to insect herbivores and abiotic stress.  The soluble jasmonic acid acts as a direct defense to herbivores or others injuries, whereas the volatile form, methyl jasmonate, represents a plant signal molecule, which serves as an indirect defense mechanism.

Throughout 2011, we have been talking to customers about what their testing needs are, what has worked for them, what hasn't worked in 2011 and strategizing about how this will impact their laboratory testing plans for 2012.  This includes reviewing our blog to make sure we understand which articles had resonated the most with our website visitors.

Lately, there seems to be more and more discussion about how does the pharmaceutical industry fix R&D.  It's no secret the industry is suffering and innovation seems to be lacking.  Stock prices of the large pharma companies are down 40%, 300,000 jobs have been lost in the last ten years and new drug approvals have slowed immensely.

Join us on the new LinkedIn Laboratory Research & Testing group.  This group has been created to learn and share and help you develop new, R&D intensive analytical and bioanalytical approaches to expedite the process of bringing new products to market.  We aspire to create an environment where the brightest academic ideas can be efficiently integrated into a highly regulated drug development framework.

Approximately 95% of all chemicals manufactured today are derived from petroleum so there has been a greater push by government and industry associations to address the environmental impact that these chemicals produce.  In recent years, initiatives have been undertaken to develop biorefinery processes that will create new green chemicals and biopolymers from renewable resources and biomass wastes.

 "The Globe and Mail" Newspaper recently reported that An international team of 42 scientists, which included 15 Canadians, have trapped 38 antihydrogen atoms – one by one – for a fraction of a second. managed to trap antimatter Antimatter captured in major scientific breakthrough.