About Us

Training

MicroCal offers monthly basic courses (2nd and 4th week of each month) in titration and scanning calorimetry at the Northampton, MA., North American location. Each course will run over two days with the goal that participants would be enabled to run, analyze, and troubleshoot experiments upon completion.

The basic courses are designed for new users who have purchased an iTC₂₀₀, Auto-iTC₂₀₀, or VP-ITC system or recently moved to a lab performing calorimetry.  New users will get a jump start on their research by attending the training course.

Course instruction includes a combination of lectures, interactive sessions, hands on experimentation, and individual instruction based upon the background and application of each student. Each student will receive a training manual and a 1 GB thumb drive with all training materials and data collected during the course.

The basic ITC training course offers instruction in titration calorimetry theory and practical use on the iTC₂₀₀.  This course includes discussions on the history of calorimetry and MicroCal, binding theory and traditional binding studies, theory of titration calorimetry and applications, and the use of ITC data to determine binding parameters.  In addition to these classroom discussions, each participant will benefit from hands-on instruction in instrument setup, maintenance and cleaning, basic ITC experimentation and data analysis, assessing the quality of ITC data, and advanced ITC experimentation including unknown samples and troubleshooting.   ITC training will be conducted on iTC₂₀₀ instruments but will cover information needed for VP-ITC users.

The basic DSC training course offers instruction in scanning calorimetry theory and practical use of the VP-DSC and Capillary DSC platforms.  This course includes discussions on the history of calorimetry and MicroCal, theory and traditional stability studies, theory of scanning calorimetry and applications, and the use of DSC data to determine stability parameters.  In addition to these classroom discussions, each participant will be trained in instrument setup, maintenance and cleaning, basic DSC experimentation and data analysis, assessing the quality of DSC data, and advanced DSC experimentation including unknown samples and troubleshooting.  The DSC course will be conducted on both the VP-DSC and Capillary DSC instruments.