Laboratory Equipment

Laboratory equipment for clinical labs and pathology groups includes a wide range of devices and instruments, some of which are familiar to the general public and some of which are highly specialized to clinical lab work.

Laboratory equipment is generally used to either perform an experiment or to take measurements and gather data. Larger or more sophisticated equipment is generally called a scientific instrument.

Such equipment includes test tubes, Folin-Wu tubes for blood glucose determination, petri dishes, beakers, flasks, Pasteur pipettes, glass slides, syringes and needles, autoclave, disposable gloves, tourniquets, microscopes, Bunsen burners, ultracentrifuge, electrophoresis apparatus, chromatography system, hematology analyzer, chemistry analyzer, semiauto analyzer, reflotron, setup for radioimmunoassay, setup for enzyme linked immunosorbant assay, (ELISA, colorimeter, burette, induction coils, cathode ray oscilloscope, recording kymograph and surface plasmon resonance equipment and various reagents.)

Other laboratory equipment might include a skin analyzer, oxygen analyzer, flouresence microscope, spectrum analyzer, and a digital pathology scanner, among many others.

At the same time, technology is advancing to the point where the capabilities of an entire laboratory can now be contained in relatively small devices. One relatively new device the size of a cola can is paired with a smartphone and can diagnose diseases like a clinical laboratory.

Another such device, marketed largely to developing countries that lack a well-developed network of clinical laboratories, is a credit-card-size anthrax detector that also works like a portable medical laboratory in the field.

In addition, research organizations, including one in the United States, one in New Zealand, and two in the U.K., have unveiled several devices that will analyze DNA in the field. Again, this line of research is of particular interest in developing countries where resources such as electricity for refrigeration are scarce. Some of the DNA testing devices will produce results in minutes to hours, eliminating the need to return to a clinical laboratory to analyze samples.

Ranging in size from little more than a pack of gum to about the size of a large brick, these devices for DNA analysis have the potential to serve as mobile medical laboratories for pathologists in the field.