2005 Readers’ Choice Awards

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With the aim of finding out what our readers use in the lab, we asked 10 product- or resource-related questions, and one bonus question: favourite lab joke. For certain questions, a particular company received resounding approval, while in others, a product type was highly ranked.

Below, we list the top answers in each of our categories. We’d like to thank all readers who took the time to participate in the 2005 Readers’ Choice Awards, and we look forward to your insightful responses next year.

Most Reliable Instrument
For this category, Waters Corp. (Milford, MA) HPLC was the resounding winner, receiving the most votes over other companies mentioned. In fact, HPLC in general received the most votes for a product/instrument, followed closely by centrifuges and spectrophotometers.

Waters features several HPLC systems, including its Alliance HPLC and Breeze™ systems.

The Alliance HPLC system offers the 2695 Separations Module, which integrates solvent and sample management. The Alliance also features a dissolution system, which allows automated online sample acquisition and HPLC analysis.

Breeze systems come with software, pump, detector and injector, and are pre-configured for different HPLC levels. Breeze software features four screens that provide real-time monitoring. “How-to” guides take users through all HPLC operations, from instrument set up and control, to processing and final results reporting, which can be e-mailed via PDF and EMF files.

Best Tech Support
Waters again received numerous nods for providing excellent tech support, while Beckman Coulter Inc. (Fullerton, CA) and Fisher Scientific (Hampton, NH) tied for second place. Surprisingly, many people also voted that they were their own tech support, or that they didn’t need any.

Most User-friendly Equipment
When it comes to lab equipment that is easy to use, readers pointed to balances.
According to readers, the company with the most accessible equipment is Agilent Technologies Inc. (Palo Alto, CA). Agilent’s Chemstation received several mentions, as did Beckman Coulter’s Biomek® FX lab automation workstation.
Biomek FX is a liquid handling system that simultaneously automates functionality of up to three liquid handlers on the same work surface. It also includes the ADMETox workstation for in vitro permeability analysis of ADME/Tox assays. The system is configured with one or two pipetting capabilities, 96- and 384-channnel disposable pipette heads, and is easily integrated into the SAGIAN™ Core System.

Gotta-Have Consumables: Kit or Product You Can’t Live Without
Qiagen NV (Venlo, the Netherlands) was overwhelmingly voted as a company with “gotta-have” products, including its blood mini-prep columns and its RNeasy prep kits.
Qiagen’s RNeasy line includes its Protect Mini, Maxi and Midi kits for RNA stabilization and purification in animal tissues and cells, as well as bacteria, yeast and enzymatic reactions. The mini kit provides RNA purification in 20 minutes, the midi in less than one hour, and the maxi in one hour.
The RNeasy MiniElute Cleanup kit allows for RNA cleanup and concentration of small amounts of RNA to only 10 µl.

Best Equipment Under $20,000
Though many different products were listed in this category, thermal cyclers received the most nods as a useful, affordable piece of equipment.
In particular, MJ Research’s PTC-100®, distributed by Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc. (Hercules, CA), received several votes, while Brinkmann Instruments Inc. (Westbury, NY) was the most mentioned company. Brinkmann was noted for several different products, including its Mastercycler® ep thermal cycler and the Eppendorf centrifuge.
MJ Research’s PTC-100 thermal cycler uses advanced Peltier technology, and is available in four standard models, accommodating tubes, plates and in situ slides. Height and pressure can be adjusted through the Hot Bonnet® heated lid, while heat pumps offer a temperature range of zero to 100 C. Up to four 96-well glass slides can be cycled at once with optional Slide Griddle™ adaptors.
Brinkmann’s Mastercycler ep system can be used either as a stand-alone device, a mini satellite system or a PC-controlled network. The heated lid integrates electronic sample protection technology, while an optional motorized lid allows the system to be integrated into fully automated systems. The Mastercycler line includes the ep gradient, the ep gradient S and the ep 384. The ep gradient features a specially coated aluminum block with a gradient range of up to 20 C. The ep gradient S features a silver block, which allows the highest temperature control speed — up to 6 C per second — and a temperature range of up to 24 C. The ep 384 allows for programmable temperature gradient over 24 rows and also features a gradient range of up to 24 C.



Most Worthwhile Splurge: Instruments over $100,000
When it comes to pricey equipment, our readers made one thing perfectly clear — sometimes the cost is just too high. The most common entry received for this category was “none,” clearly showing that a $100,000-price tag might be a bit much for many labs.

For those with deep pockets, however, Illumina Inc. (San Diego, CA), Waters and Beckman Coulter received several votes each, with HPLC MS and genotyping systems noted as products most worthy of such a big investment.
Specifically, Illumina’s BeadStation genotyping system was singled out as a worthwhile purchase. Integrating a high-multiplex assay protocol, multi-sample Array of Arrays™ platforms, a sub-micron resolution scanner, and a system-operation software suite, the BeadStation can perform genotyping studies of varying sizes, from linkage and fine mapping, to disease association.

Most Valuable Online Resource
Though votes were cast for several different organizations, websites for chemical societies and associations — including www.chemweb.com and www.acs.org — were our readers’ clear Internet favourites.
Other popular sites include Google, PubMed and Sigma-Aldrich Corp. (St. Louis, MO).

Equipment or Product That Generates the Best Word-of-Mouth buzz
Illumina’s BeadStation again scored high in this category, while Agilent was also named a favourite, with such products as the 1100 LC and Bioanalyzer 2100 receiving mention.
The Agilent 2100 Bioanalyzer is a microfluidics-based platform for DNA, RNA, protein and cell analysis. Based on lab-on-a-chip technology, the Bioanalyzer provides high-quality digital data. Agilent has also added to the Bioanalyzer 2100 line, with its electrophoresis bioanalyser.

Best Time-saving Instrument, Product or Lab Tip
This category was a mixed bag, with both a variety of lab tips and products listed.
Advice included keeping your lab space clean; keeping detailed, organized notes; and running samples overnight. One tip offers that when doing PCR, “Use half as much Taq and twice as much primer. Gives better yields.”
When it comes to products, HPLC is the clear winner. Several readers voted for HPLC or automated HPLC in general, and the Waters 717plus Autosampler (which is part of the Breeze system) was also specifically noted.
The 717plus features an optional heating/cooling module that allows researchers to work with a wide range or samples, from heat-labile biological samples to viscous polymer samples.

Favourite Lab Clean-up Tip
Lots of great cleaning advice was provided by Laboratory Focus readers, many of whom suggested staying true to what Mom used to say — pick up after yourself, so that it doesn’t become a mess in the first place!

Other great tips included:

• “To reduce PCR carryover contamination, routinely soak pipettor barrels in 0.1N HCI for 10 minutes or so, perhaps once a week.”




• “Cover bench with cleanable or disposable cover before working with liquids.”




• “Acetone cleans up aluminum dust.”




• “We use a vacuum-assisted chemical trap to suck all of our spent spectrophotometer samples into. This quickens the clean-up process (and) saves us a lot of time.”

Lab Jokes
Laboratory Focus readers certainly have a sense of humour, judging by the great response we got to this last bonus question. We’ve included just a few of our favourite responses below.
“A molecular biologist walks into the research building. Ouch! You’d think he would have noticed it was there.”
“Since when are lab techs expected to have a sense of humour?”
“If Fleming would have kept his lab clean, he would have never discovered penicillin.”
“Lab joke? Are you sure that isn’t an oxymoron?”