Top 12 Laboratory Assistant Skills to Put on Your Resume
In the dynamic world of laboratory work, a sharp resume turns heads. The right skills tell a story—reliable hands, smart judgment, results that hold up. Below, twelve essentials every laboratory assistant should highlight to show capability, care, and readiness for real bench work.
Laboratory Assistant Skills
- PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction)
- ELISA (Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay)
- HPLC (High-Performance Liquid Chromatography)
- GC-MS (Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry)
- Spectrophotometry
- Western Blotting
- Cell Culture
- Flow Cytometry
- Microscopy (Confocal, Fluorescence)
- DNA Sequencing
- Bioinformatics Tools (e.g., BLAST)
- Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS)
1. PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction)
PCR amplifies specific DNA sequences, turning tiny traces into millions of copies. That scale-up unlocks detection, genotyping, and pathogen identification in short order.
Why It's Important
It enables rapid, specific detection of genetic material from minimal input. Critical for diagnostics, quality control, and research where sensitivity and speed matter.
How to Improve PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) Skills
Dial in conditions, and PCR behaves. Get sloppy, and it wanders.
Magnesium and salts: Titrate MgCl2 and buffer strength to balance yield and specificity.
Annealing temperature: Run gradients to find the sweet spot for each primer pair.
Primer design: Aim for 40–60% GC, avoid hairpins and dimers, match Tm between primers, and keep amplicons compact when possible. Primer3 or similar tools help.
Template quality: Purity matters. Remove inhibitors. Quantify before you pipette.
Hot start: Use hot-start enzymes to cut non-specific amplification.
Additives: For GC-rich targets, try DMSO or betaine in small, tested increments.
Cycle count: Too many cycles inflate artifacts. Most targets land cleanly at 25–35.
Clean technique: Separate pre- and post-PCR areas. Use aerosol-resistant tips. Include NTCs.
Record every tweak. Patterns emerge, and success repeats.
How to Display PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) Skills on Your Resume
2. ELISA (Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay)
ELISA detects and quantifies proteins or antibodies using antigen–antibody binding and enzyme-driven signal readouts.
Why It's Important
It’s sensitive, specific, and scalable. From biomarkers to vaccine studies, ELISA anchors reliable quantitation.
How to Improve ELISA (Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay) Skills
Small choices shift the curve. Make them count.
Antibody validation: Choose well-characterized pairs. Titrate both capture and detection for signal-to-noise.
Plate coating: Optimize concentration, buffer, time, and temperature. Consistency is king.
Blocking: Test blockers (BSA, casein, milk) to suppress background without muting signal.
Washing: Adequate volume, dwell time, and cycles. Gentle yet thorough.
Incubations: Control timing and temperature; avoid edge effects with even plate handling.
Standard curves: Run fresh curves each plate. Use appropriate curve-fitting (4PL/5PL).
Controls: Include blanks, negative, and positive controls to flag drift.
Equipment: Calibrate pipettes and verify plate reader performance.
How to Display ELISA (Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay) Skills on Your Resume
3. HPLC (High-Performance Liquid Chromatography)
HPLC separates, identifies, and quantifies components in complex mixtures under high pressure using tailored stationary and mobile phases.
Why It's Important
It underpins purity checks, stability studies, and trace quantitation in pharma, environmental work, and food testing.
How to Improve HPLC (High-Performance Liquid Chromatography) Skills
Separation lives in the details.
Column care: Use guard columns, filter samples, and follow proper storage. Monitor backpressure and peak shape to catch decline early.
Mobile phase: Optimize pH, modifier, and organic ratio. For complex samples, employ gradients with sensible ramp rates.
Flow and temperature: Adjust to tune resolution and run time, staying within column specs.
Injection parameters: Right volume and strong/weak solvents prevent distortion.
Detection: Match wavelength to analyte maxima; verify linearity and noise.
System suitability: Track plates, tailing, resolution, and %RSD; act when metrics drift.
Preventive maintenance: Replace seals, frits, and solvents on schedule; purge and degas routinely.
How to Display HPLC (High-Performance Liquid Chromatography) Skills on Your Resume
4. GC-MS (Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry)
GC separates volatiles; MS fingerprints them by mass spectra. Together, they deliver confident identification and quantitation.
Why It's Important
From forensics to environmental monitoring, GC-MS provides high-specificity answers when ambiguity isn’t an option.
How to Improve GC-MS (Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry) Skills
Keep the system clean, the method tight, and the data honest.
Routine upkeep: Swap septa and liners, trim columns, and clean ion sources per schedule.
Sample prep: Use appropriate extraction and cleanup to cut matrix effects and improve sensitivity.
Carrier gas and flows: Tune flow, split ratios, and inlet temperatures for sharp peaks.
Oven programs: Sensible ramps and holds prevent coelution and broadened peaks.
MS tuning: Optimize source temperature, electron energy, and quadrupole settings for target ions.
Internal standards: Stable-isotope or structurally similar standards correct variability.
Data analysis: Use libraries thoughtfully, confirm with qualifier ions, and monitor S/N and ion ratios.
Training: Practice troubleshooting leaks, ghost peaks, and contamination until it’s second nature.
How to Display GC-MS (Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry) Skills on Your Resume
5. Spectrophotometry
Spectrophotometry measures how much light a solution absorbs at defined wavelengths, translating absorbance into concentration.
Why It's Important
It’s fast, robust, and quantitative. Perfect for enzyme kinetics, nucleic acid quant, and routine QC.
How to Improve Spectrophotometry Skills
Precision builds from simple habits.
Calibration: Verify wavelength accuracy and baseline regularly with standards.
Clean cuvettes: Match cuvettes, inspect for scratches, align consistently, and avoid fingerprints.
Proper blanks: Matrix-matched blanks reduce drift and background.
Linear range: Keep measurements within the instrument’s linear region; dilute as needed.
Environmental control: Stable temperature and timing improve reproducibility, especially for kinetics.
Documentation: Record path length, wavelengths, and extinction coefficients for traceability.
How to Display Spectrophotometry Skills on Your Resume
6. Western Blotting
Western blots separate proteins by size, transfer them to membranes, and probe with antibodies to detect targets of interest.
Why It's Important
It confirms protein presence, size, and relative expression, and can assess post-translational changes. A workhorse for verification.
How to Improve Western Blotting Skills
Clean bands, low background, strong controls—that’s the goal.
Quantify protein: Use a reliable total protein assay (e.g., BCA) and load equal amounts.
Gel choice: Match acrylamide percentage or gradient gels to the size range of targets.
Transfer: Optimize time, voltage, and membrane type (nitrocellulose vs PVDF). Verify with reversible stains.
Blocking: Choose BSA or milk based on antibody and detection method; test concentrations.
Antibody conditions: Titrate primary and secondary, and consider overnight 4°C incubations for specificity.
Stringent washing: Adequate TBST washes cut haze and false positives.
Detection: Select chemiluminescence or fluorescence per sensitivity needs; avoid signal saturation.
Controls and normalization: Use loading controls or total protein normalization; include positive/negative controls.
How to Display Western Blotting Skills on Your Resume
7. Cell Culture
Cell culture grows and maintains cells under controlled conditions to study biology, produce materials, and test responses.
Why It's Important
It enables reproducible experiments, model systems, and screening workflows that drive discovery and development.
How to Improve Cell Culture Skills
Clean technique, healthy cells, reliable outcomes.
Asepsis: Respect sterile boundaries. Disinfect surfaces, flame or sterilize tools when appropriate, and use filtered tips.
Environment: Maintain correct temperature, humidity, and CO2; monitor with independent sensors.
Media and supplements: Use cell-type-appropriate formulations, warmed and equilibrated. Track lot changes.
Monitoring: Check morphology and confluence routinely; adjust feeding and splitting schedules accordingly.
Authentication and QC: Verify cell line identity and test for mycoplasma on a schedule.
Subculture timing: Passage before over-confluence to prevent stress and drift.
Equipment care: Clean hoods, water pans, and incubators; log maintenance.
Records: Track passage number, media lots, split ratios, and observations.
How to Display Cell Culture Skills on Your Resume
8. Flow Cytometry
Flow cytometry measures physical and chemical characteristics of cells or particles one by one in a moving stream of light.
Why It's Important
It dissects heterogeneous populations fast—phenotyping, viability, function, even sorting—at impressive scale.
How to Improve Flow Cytometry Skills
Good data starts before the sample hits the laser.
Sample quality: Single-cell suspensions, proper filtering, and viability dyes reduce debris and artifacts.
Panel design: Choose fluorochromes to minimize spectral overlap and match antigen density to fluor strength.
Controls: Include FMO, isotype (where appropriate), compensation controls, and biological controls.
Compensation: Set with appropriate single-stained controls; verify with automated and manual checks.
Instrument QC: Daily performance checks and calibration beads keep sensitivity stable.
Gating strategy: Sequential gates (size, singlets, viability) first; then markers. Document thoroughly.
Analysis: Use consistent templates, track batch effects, and apply robust statistics.
How to Display Flow Cytometry Skills on Your Resume
9. Microscopy (Confocal, Fluorescence)
Fluorescence microscopy reveals labeled structures with bright contrast; confocal adds optical sectioning for crisp, depth-resolved images.
Why It's Important
It illuminates cellular architecture and dynamics, turning invisible processes into analyzable pictures.
How to Improve Microscopy (Confocal, Fluorescence) Skills
Sharp images come from careful prep and disciplined setups.
Sample prep: Use validated fixation, permeabilization, and mounting methods. Keep samples thin; reduce autofluorescence.
Dyes and labels: Match fluorophores to laser lines and filters; avoid spectral crowding in multicolor panels.
Acquisition settings: Tune laser power, detector gain/offset, and pinhole size to maximize SNR without saturating.
Nyquist sampling: Set pixel size and z-step to capture true resolution.
Controls: Include no-primary and single-stain controls to spot bleed-through and non-specific binding.
Maintenance: Clean optics, check alignment, and warm up systems for stable output.
Analysis: Use validated image processing workflows; document deconvolution, thresholds, and ROIs.
How to Display Microscopy (Confocal, Fluorescence) Skills on Your Resume
10. DNA Sequencing
DNA sequencing determines the exact order of nucleotides in a DNA molecule. Today, both short-read and long-read platforms power the work.
Why It's Important
It maps variants, detects pathogens, and drives personalized medicine. For a lab assistant, it means clean prep, smooth runs, and trustworthy data.
How to Improve DNA Sequencing Skills
Quality in, quality out.
High-quality input: Extract intact DNA, remove inhibitors, and quantify with appropriate methods (fluorometric for concentration, spectrophotometric for purity).
Library prep discipline: Follow protocols precisely; verify fragment size distributions and adapter ligation success.
Controls and spike-ins: Include positive controls and standards to monitor run performance.
Platform fit: Choose short-read for high accuracy and depth; long-read for structural variants and assemblies.
Automation where possible: Reduce pipetting variance in repetitive steps.
Run QC: Track cluster density or pore health, error profiles, and yield; adjust loading accordingly.
Data handling: Use validated pipelines, maintain metadata, and apply rigorous QC filters.
How to Display DNA Sequencing Skills on Your Resume
11. Bioinformatics Tools (e.g., BLAST)
Bioinformatics tools analyze sequence data—alignments, annotations, variant calls, and more. BLAST, alignment suites, and workflow managers are staples.
Why It's Important
They transform raw sequences into biological meaning. Fast comparisons, confident identifications, reproducible pipelines.
How to Improve Bioinformatics Tools (e.g., BLAST) Skills
Focus on use, accuracy, and reproducibility.
Database hygiene: Use current, curated databases; document versions for every analysis.
Parameters that matter: Adjust scoring matrices, gap penalties, and filters to suit target similarity and length.
QC first: Trim adapters, remove low-quality reads, and screen for contamination before analysis.
Command-line literacy: Learn scripting basics to automate routine tasks and ensure repeatability.
Annotation awareness: Cross-check hits with secondary resources and functional domains; avoid single-hit conclusions.
Version control: Save pipelines and configurations; track changes so results can be replicated.
Visualization: Use genome browsers and plotting tools to sanity-check alignments and variants.
How to Display Bioinformatics Tools (e.g., BLAST) Skills on Your Resume
12. Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS)
A LIMS manages samples, metadata, workflows, and results, improving traceability and compliance while reducing manual errors.
Why It's Important
It keeps labs organized and audit-ready. Sample chains stay intact, data stays consistent, teams move faster.
How to Improve Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS) Skills
Make the system work for the lab, not the other way around.
Instrument integration: Feed data directly from instruments to the LIMS to cut transcription errors.
Role-based workflows: Configure permissions and steps that match real processes on the bench.
Training: Provide concise SOPs and quick-reference guides; refresh training with system updates.
Data standards: Use consistent naming, units, and metadata fields to support clean reporting.
Updates and backups: Apply patches, monitor performance, and schedule verified backups.
Security: Enforce access controls, audit logs, and encryption where appropriate.
Feedback loop: Collect user input, track issues, and iterate configurations to remove friction.
Metrics: Monitor turnaround time, error rates, and throughput to guide improvements.
How to Display Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS) Skills on Your Resume
