The Survey of Best Practices in Biological & Medical Laboratory Management (PDF)

This 130+ page study is based on data from more than 20 major biological or medical laboratories connected to major universities, private pharmaceutical or biotech firms and other organizations that conduct advanced biological or medical research. The study looks closely at how key lab procedures are handled, in-house or outsourced, for gene sequencing, laboratory animal management, DNA preparation and pathological analysis. The study gives detailed data on budgets, equipment spending, spending on lab animals, materials spending, overhead spending and other spending categories. It also looks at the outlook for lab funding, from the parent institution, and from internal and external grant sources. This exhaustive study also examines issues such as: centralized vs. localized purchasing, use of consortia, level of cooperation with the parent institution and other laboratories. It presents data on the ratio of scientists to lab technicians and other support personnel, and discusses the degree to which scientists or administrators control lab hiring. Other issues discussed in detail include: personnel training, equipment installation, billing and invoicing, number and quality of meetings of lab personnel, use of and funds for laboratory management systems and other software and hardware, trends in experiment documentation, policies on environmental and personal safety, and much more of interest to individuals that work in, oversee or provide critical products or services to medical or biological research laboratories in academia, industry and elsewhere.