Knowledge centre

Methods a laboratory can check.

Guides, method explainers and sourcing notes for research laboratories. Written by the EVRINTH Editorial Team from published methods, with catalogue links for enquiry rather than stock claims.

cold chain biosafety crispr specification sequencing proteomics enquiry glossary troubleshooting cloning microbiology buffers freezers pipetting calibration elisa cell culture glassware

520 articles

Safety goggles, lab coat, nitrile gloves and a face shield on a bench with an eyewash station behind

laboratory safety

Eye protection and a face shield

Compare safety glasses, sealed goggles, and a face shield by the splash they actually stop. A shield does not retire the need for goggles.

8 October 2026 · 9 min read

Mass spectrometer coupled to a liquid chromatography system with sample vials in the foreground

proteomics

False discovery rates and decoy searches

A decoy search estimates the false discovery rate of a whole accepted list. It is not the probability that one protein is true, and it does not repair a wrong database.

8 October 2026 · 8 min read

Gloved fingers placing a silica spin column into a collection tube beside a tube rack and pipette tips

nucleic acid purification

FFPE samples and fragmented nucleic acid

Troubleshoot short nucleic acid from FFPE tissue: formalin crosslinks, fragmentation, and why a failed long amplicon does not mean the block was empty.

8 October 2026 · 9 min read

pH electrode in a beaker of buffer while a gloved hand adds drops from a dropper bottle

buffers and water

Filter sterilising a buffer

Explain what a 0.22 micrometre filter removes from a buffer, which membrane polymer fits the solution, and why a bubble-point value belongs to one device.

8 October 2026 · 8 min read

Stacked boxes of pipette tips in blue racks

liquid handling

Filter tips and aerosol risk

Decide when a filter tip reduces aerosol in the shaft, and keep the biosafety cabinet and the risk assessment in the workflow.

8 October 2026 · 7 min read

labware

Filter tips versus standard tips

When a filter tip is the right aerosol barrier for nucleic acid, culture or radioisotope work, and why the pipette still sets accuracy.

8 October 2026 · 8 min read

Gloved hand sliding a yellow-developed ELISA plate into a microplate reader drawer

immunoassays

Fixation and antigen retrieval concepts

How formaldehyde and alcohol fixation change epitopes, and how to test one retrieval class against morphology before you lock a method.

8 October 2026 · 10 min read

Rack of flow cytometry tubes in front of a researcher viewing coloured scatter plots beside a cytometer

cytometry and microscopy

Fixation and permeabilisation concepts

How formaldehyde fixation and detergent or alcohol permeabilisation change epitopes, and when to follow the antibody sheet.

8 October 2026 · 7 min read

Fluorescence microscope illuminating a culture dish with a monitor of glowing cells behind

cytometry and microscopy

Fluorescence microscopy without the myths

How a fluorescence microscope selects excitation and emission, and which bright pictures still fail as evidence of a labelled molecule.

8 October 2026 · 10 min read

nucleic acid purification

Fluorometric versus absorbance quantification

Choose a dye assay when double-stranded DNA must be counted, and absorbance when you need a fast check of everything that absorbs at 260 nm.

8 October 2026 · 8 min read

Close-up of a micropipette tip releasing a droplet into a microcentrifuge tube held in a gloved hand

liquid handling

Forward and reverse pipetting

Choose forward pipetting for aqueous liquids and reverse pipetting when the liquid foams, clings, or evaporates, and do not mix the strokes in one check.

8 October 2026 · 8 min read

cytometry and microscopy

Forward scatter side scatter and a gate

How to read forward and side scatter, draw a gate you can defend, and keep that gate with the file before naming a population.

8 October 2026 · 9 min read