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A sustainability blog for biologists whose goal is to reduce laboratory waste, use green chemistry, and improve efficiency. Green labs thrive!
Photo Credit: U of Toronto Trash Team
In this interview with Susan Debreceni, learn how ecologists from the University of Toronto Trash Team developed a science-based Home Waste Audit to help people find ways to reduce plastic pollution in ecosystems.
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Scientists rely on efficient laboratory conditions to be able to focus on discovery. Learn the steps a Sanofi Pasteur vaccine research group took to radically transform their cold storage organization in this interview with Partha Krishnan, Ph.D.
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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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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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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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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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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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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.
Read MoreLabconscious is an open resource for biologists to support sustainability and green laboratory work to reduce the environmental footprint of bench science.
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