Course Title: Instrumentation
Course Code: MeLS 304
Credit Hours: 2
Lecture: 2 hour/week
Prerequisite: Introduction to medical laboratory
Instructor: Tatek G/her (MSc- clinical chemist, PhD fellow)
Course objective:
At the end of this course students will be able to:
- Know the scope of laboratory instrumentation in clinical laboratory science
- Identify the specific use and types of water purification methods
- Describe the process of moist heat sterilization
- Explain the strategies for solving problems with the operation of incubators and drying
ovens.
- State the purpose of different types of biological safety cabinets
- Discuss operation feature of micropipette
- Describe how radiation interacts with matter
- Explain the measurement principle of different spectrophotometers
- State the principle and application of mass spectrometry
- Discuss the measurement principle of different electrochemical techniques
- Discuss the principle of radioactive detection and safety issues
- Explain the separation principle of electrophoresis
- Clarify the analytical technique and principle of chromatographs
- Discuss the instrument design, principle and application of cell counting automations
- Explain the principle of laboratory automation
Course description:
The principle, procedural note and applications of different instrumentation will be
discussed. The following topics will be covered in this course; general laboratory
instrumentation, micropipettes, spectroscopic techniques, electrochemical techniques,
radiometry, electrophoresis, chromatography, cell counting automations and general
laboratory automation.
1
Chapter outline:
1. General Laboratory Instrumentations [2.0 hrs ]
1.1. Course Background
1.1. Water purity and Distillation system use
1.1. Autoclave
1.1. Incubators and Ovens
1.1. Biological Safety Cabinet
2. Operation and Functional Verification of Automated Micropipettes [2.0 hrs]
2.1. Operating procedure
2.1. Pipetting techniques
2.2. Pipette troubleshooting
2.3. General working remarks
2.4. Principles of inspection and calibration
3. Principles and application of Spectroscopic Techniques [9 hrs]
3.1. Basics of electromagnetic radiation [0.5 hr]
3.1.1. Introduction
3.1.2. Interaction of radiation Vs. matter
3.2. UV-Visible Spectrophotometer [1.5]
3.2.1. Introduction
3.2.2. Essential Instrumentation
3.2.3. Performance verification
3.3. Basic features of manual Vs. automated spectrophotometers [0.5]
3.3.1. Unpacking and priming of instruments
3.4. Atomic Spectroscopy [1.5]
3.4.1. Atomic absorption spectroscopy
3.4.2. Flame emission spectroscopy
3.4.3. Atomic fluorescent spectroscopy
3.5. Introduction to Fluorometer [1.0]
3.5.1. Instrumentation and Principle of measurement
3.6. Turbidimetric and Nephelometric techniques [1.0]
3.6.1. Instrumentation and principle of measurement
3.6.2. Important remarks of measurement
3.7. Reflectance spectrophotometer [1.0]
3.7.1. Instrumentation and principle of measurement
3.7.2. Important remarks of measurement
3.8. Mass Spectrometry [2.0]
3.8.1. Basic concepts and definitions
3.8.2. Instrumentation principle and clinical application
4. Electrochemical Techniques [3.0]
4.1. pH meter: principle, instrumentation and care [1.5]
4.1.1. Principle of pH measurement
4.1.2. Instrumentation
4.1.3. General operating principle
4.2. Ion-selective electrode [1.5]
4.2.1. Introduction
4.2.2. Measurement principle
4.2.3. Instrumentation
4.3. Biosensors [0.5]
2
4.3.1. Introduction
4.3.2. Biochemical principle and application
5. Radiochemistry and Radiometry [2.0]
5.1. Introduction to Radiometry and it application
5.2. Nuclear structure and nuclear reaction
5.3. Principle of radiometry and instrumentation
5.4. Safety precautions
6. Electrophoresis [2.0]
6.1. Introduction to electrophoresis
6.2. Principle and application
6.3. Apparatus and instrumentation
6.3.1. Gel electrophoresis
6.3.2. SDS-PAGE
6.4. Detection and quantization
6.5. Isoelectric focusing , basic concept
7. Chromatography [6]
7.1. Introduction
7.2. Principle of chromatographic techniques
7.2.1. Ion exchange
7.2.2. Gel filtration
7.2.3. Affinity
7.2.4. Adsoption
7.3. Automated chromatography
7.3.1. Gas chromatography
7.3.2. High performance liquid chromatography
7.4. Planar chromatography
8. Cell Counting automations [5]
8.1. Automated Hematology analyzers [2.5]
8.1.1. Introduction
8.1.2. Sources of parameters
8.1.3. Principle of automation
8.1.3.1. Electrical Resistance
8.1.3.2. Optical Detection
8.1.3.3. Radio Frequency
8.1.3.4. Hydrodynamic focusing
8.1.4. Interpretation of histograms and scattergrams
8.1.5. Common errors
8.1.6. Quality Control
8.2. Flowcytometry [2.5]
8.2.1. Basic concept
8.2.2. Essential components
8.2.2.1. Illumination
8.2.2.2. Fluidics
8.2.2.3. Optics
8.2.2.4. Detectors
8.2.2.5. Interpretation of flow data
9. General Laboratory Automation [1.0]
3
References:
Burtis CA, A.E., Tietz fundamental of clinical chemistry. 5 ed. 2001, USA: W.B. sounders
Lecture note series on Laboratory Instrumentation, Carter center, 2008.
Wendy Arneson and Jean Brickell. Clinical chemistry, a laboratory perspective, 2007.
USA, by F. A Davis company.
Analytical Biochemistry , 3rd ed. David J.Home and Hazel Peck
Principles and practice of analytical chemistry. F.W.Fifild and D.Kealey
Any Instrument users’ manuals (operation guideline)
Teaching Methods:
Lecture
Demonstration
Presentation and group discussion
Laboratory practice
Audiovisual
Assessment Method:
Assignment & Quiz (10%)
Mid examination (40%)
Final examination (50%)
Time Allocation: 32 hours of theoretical.
Grading: Fixed scale
Type of Examination:
Theory:
Multiple choice questions, Short answers, Essays (minimum)
Matching, Completion and True or false (Optional)
