Ironically, after many years of concern about how to reduce single-use lab plastic usage and divert this waste from landfills - we now face shortages. This post explores current events and ways that life science labs are dealing with pipette tips, plates, and tube shortages, as well as a few high-tech options to conserve these resources and improve the reliability of assay results.
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Sustainable vaccine cold storage
The triumph of the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines resulted in a universal sigh of relief - followed by dismay at the lack of cold storage capacities to put these vaccines into use. With science in progress to develop mRNA vaccines for other diseases like Zika virus, metastatic cancers, and multiple sclerosis, what is the long view for sustainable cold storage infrastructure?
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Going Green in a Wet Lab: Symbolic vs High-Impact Actions
After the spread of the Coronavirus, the absence of ‘business as usual’ forced us to live and think differently – and it made most (if not all) of us realize how human activities put incredible pressure on our planet. Now that many scientists are returning to the labs, maybe it’s time to put lab sustainability on the agenda in research? As a biochemist and environmentalist, I understand how essential labs are to experimental research and education within fields such as biology, medicine, and biotechnology, but I am also very much aware of the
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The University of Bristol is building on its success with LEAF to achieve 100% green laboratories
A group of U.K. research universities is quantifying carbon and cost-saving and targeting scientific reproducibility to reduce waste using The Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework (LEAF). Excitingly, the University of Bristol plans to expand LEAF institution-wide and certify every lab green! This endeavor is an exceptional opportunity for early-career scientists to gain lab optimization skills and become more competitive for industry jobs and research grants.
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The Digesterponic System from the University of California San Diego can recycle food waste for an urban Garden Oasis
Truly, community gardens are beautiful, peaceful places that allow us to connect with nature and contribute to our neighborhoods. That’s part of the reason why the BioEnergy project presentation for the ISC Research Symposium at UCSD caught my eye. I wanted to learn how Agrobiology technology can support food security.
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Peptide drug biosynthesis or chemical synthesis, which will be more sustainable?
Improved efficacies have led to a surge of interest in peptide drugs, classified by the U.S. FDA as biologics. As peptide drug discoveries proliferate, rather than allowing un-sustainable production methods turn the field into a victim of its own success, researchers aim to enhance peptide manufacturing. The bar set for sustainable peptide manufacturing requires it to be faster, cheaper, and more environmentally friendly than conventional methods.
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Add operational resilience to the life sciences by targeting cold shipping waste
The concept of ‘operational resilience’ factors in the ways to keep working in changing conditions. As a biologist, you might think of it as applying the principle of adaptation to your lab work. Today’s blog shares simple and effective ways that you can add resiliency to cold shipping biologicals.
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Steve Miller from Eversource brings ‘positive energy’ for environmental stewardship to biotech, pharma and academic labs, seen here in Cambridge Massachusetts..
Empowering scientists in laboratories: Q&A with Steve Miller from Eversource
There is an invisible obstacle to running an environmentally responsible laboratory. It’s something that is easily forgotten, easily dismissed, or even totally unrecognized. Since it is relatively inexpensive and intangible it appears immaterial to pollution. None the less it contributes to the surprising fact that pharma emits more greenhouse gases than the auto industry. Have you guessed yet? The invisible obstacle is saving electricity.
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