Editorial Article
Wednesday April 07, 2010
by Catherine Shaffer
The twin goals of disaster preparedness and conservation have inspired a growing movement toward greener and more energy efficient laboratories. Green lab initiatives include more efficient instrumentation, green building design, and the use of nontoxic, nonradioactive reagents. However, sample storage is one of the greatest challenges in a green laboratory, with banks of freezers quietly consuming many thousands of kilowatt hours (kWh) of energy per year. Innovations such as dry sample storage and improved freezer technology can greatly reduce the footprint of a life sciences laboratory.
GenVault, a company on the forefront of the green labs movement, provides technologies and products for handling biosamples and reagents at ambient temperatures in the dry state condition. Their core technology includes stabilization of nucleic acids and crude samples like blood and tissue lysates in paper and inert chemical matrices for shipping and storage. The samples can be simply and fully resolubilized with water for direct downstream molecular analysis.
Ambient temperature storage of samples on a paper matrix is not a new idea. Guthrie cards have been in widespread use since 1970 to collect blood from newborn heel sticks. GenVault's updated version of this technique is provided in its GenPlates 384-well high density storage plates for room storage of biosamples. Their GenTegra technology protects DNA and RNA from degradation at ambient temperature or in extreme temperature ranges of -80°C to 76°C.
Using ambient temperature dry storage for samples allows researchers to reduce the number of freezers necessary to maintain their biosamples, and helps organizations to achieve their sustainability goals by greatly reducing the number of kWh/year used, and, in turn, creating smaller carbon footprints. Institutions could save as much as $1,000 per year, per freezer replaced with a dry storage system. In terms of environmental impact, GenVault estimates that a single biobank can save 532 thousand pounds of carbon dioxide, or the equivalent of thirty-five cars removed from the road, over a five year period. Says Rene Nunez, director of marketing for GenVault, "We feel that we are contributing to the global effort in making our planet green and energy sustainable."
Biomatrica is another major player in dry room temperature storage space. Their technology is a matrix that shrink-wraps nucleic acids such as DNA or RNA with a glassy shell at ambient temperature. This matrix shields biological materials from external influences, such as ultraviolet light and heat, affording long-term preservation for up to thirty years (for genomic DNA), based on accelerated aging tests. The technology is based on the principle of "anhydrobiosis" (life without water), which is a natural protective mechanism found in some multicellular organisms that use a similar strategy to survive long droughts. When water becomes available, their cellular contents are reconstituted. Biomatrica engineered the natural system to optimize it for storage of biological samples.
In a pilot study at Stanford University, researchers migrated a small fraction of their currently frozen biological materials to room temperature storage technology from Biomatrica. Campus-wide, there are between 9 and 14 million biological samples in cold freezers, emitting approximately 900 to 1100 metric tons of CO2 per year, and consuming 1.9 to 2.4 million kilowatts of electricity, or 10 to 12 thousand million BTUs. According to the report generated at the completion of the pilot study, "if all 14 million samples were completely migrated from cold storage to room temperature storage, Stanford University will save between 2 to 2.5 million dollars per year."
Biomatrica technology serves several market segments, including forensics, biobanks, academic research, diagnostics, and biotechnology. Organizations that transport biological samples over long distances have been particularly interested in dry ambient temperature storage because of its obvious advantages over shipping on dry ice or in freezers. These advantages include significant shipping cost reduction, significant reduction in waste materials (bulk, boxes, and styrofoam), and reduced shipping time.
Dry ambient temperature storage is a great option for nucleic acids, certain types of crude biological samples, and even some proteins. However, not every sample can be stored this way. Some freezers are necessary. An energy efficient freezer is an important part of building a greener laboratory. Recognition of the power-intensive nature of refrigeration has led Sanyo, a major supplier of laboratory refrigerators and freezers, to develop an energy-aware approach to product development. This ethic has influenced the design of their Twin Guard Series™ -86°C Ultra-Low Freezer (MDF-U500VX), which features optional “Ecomode” operation, with power savings up to 16.8% more than comparable standard freezers. In addition, Sanyo has introduced a new line of compressors called Coolsafe. The Coolsafe compressor achieves 10% greater energy efficiency through superior air flow and cooling to the compressor itself. Furthermore, the MDF-500VX uses Dual° Cool™ technology, unlike traditional cascade systems, operates as two refrigeration systems with two individual compressors, each purpose-built to operate independently in the event of an unexpected failure.
A cooler, more efficient compressor offers energy savings not only in the cost of running the freezer, but also in heating and cooling in the building. By putting out less heat, the Coolsafe technology reduces the burden on the air conditioning system. This is consistent with the “whole building” approach advocated by Labs 21, a voluntary partnership program dedicated to improving the environmental performance of U.S. Laboratories. Other features included in Sanyo green freezers include environmentally friendly refrigerants, vacuum panel insulation, microprocessor cooling control, and high-density storage.
Although there is some hesitation among freezer manufacturers to incorporate green and energy-efficient design into their products, Sanyo sees these goals as complementary, rather than at odds, with current practice. They have developed their newer, energy-efficient products without sacrificing performance. “We're always looking at developing next generation technology that will not only provide us good energy efficiency, but improved performance,” says Deepak Mistry, strategic development and marketing manager for Sanyo.
Unlike many decisions about laboratory equipment and policy, initiatives for transitioning to more energy-efficient and green technology often come from higher levels of administration. This is because individual lab managers do not see the cumulative high costs of operating hundreds of laboratories and dozens of buildings. The extra costs of using less efficient freezers or of unnecessary heating and cooling can add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars in a single year. With increasing social awareness of the value of reducing energy consumption, many universities are now forming policies to encourage the use of more efficient, less polluting equipment.