What Kind of Advanced Equipment Do Medical Research Labs Use

Many types of research labs use specialized equipment to perform tasks that could not could not be done as effectively without the aid of technology. Medical research labs employ a wide array of advanced equipment to reduce the amount of time that researchers spend on repetitive activities. Many of these pieces of equipment can also perform activities that humans are not physically capable of reproducing. These are a few pieces of advanced equipment commonly used in medical labs.

Centrifuge

The centrifuge is device that is used in most medical research labs. The device spins liquids at a rapid speed. This spinning process separates particles according to their varying density levels. One common application is the analysis of various components of blood. The centrifuge separates red cells, plasma, and white cells.

Robotic Automation

Robotics can lessen the amount of time and effort that humans need to put into tedious tasks such as mixing, shaking, picking and placing, adding solids and liquids, and other repetitive tasks. Some companies, such as Hudson Robotics, know that robotic automation is commonly used for research in the pharmaceutical industry. Robotic automation is often used in crystallography, the study of the structures and properties of crystals. Because the process of building a library of crystal structures is tedious, the use of automated robotics greatly speeds this process.

Electrophoresis Apparatus

This machine is used in a type of process that separates macromolecules based on size, and it can be used in the analysis of DNA and RNA. It can also be used in the analysis of proteins by separating these proteins based on size. Researchers use this process to understand how bacteria can become resistant to antibiotics. It does this by applying negatively-charged ions to proteins so the proteins move toward positively-charged ions.

Hematology Analyzer

This equipment is used to complete blood counts including white blood cell counts. It also does coagulation tests on blood. These counts are ordered by doctors for a variety of reasons including routine blood work and to test for potential disorders such as hemophilia, malignancies, and anemias.

Colorimeter

A colorimeter is sometimes used in medical labs to estimate the amount of blood sugar, hemoglobin, and creatinine in a blood sample. This piece of equipment makes these estimates by measuring the absorption of certain wavelengths through the solution.

Medical lab research is greatly improved with the application of advanced technological equipment. This list is only a small portion of the commonly-used types of equipment.