Gurdon Institute steams ahead

The Gurdon Institute in Cambridge (England) is at the forefront of biological research, and sterility is critical to much of its laboratory work. Its new Henry Wellcome Building has been equipped with sterilisation equipment from Astell, the UK’s leading manufacturer of autoclaves.

The Institute is part of Cambridge University and consists of a number of independent research groups located in one building designed to promote as much interaction as possible. Funding from its two main sponsors, the Wellcome Trust and Cancer Research UK, supports research into the complementary areas of Cancer and Developmental Biology. Developmental biology is concerned with how cells acquire and maintain their normal function, whereas cancer is a result of a cell breaking loose from its correct controls and becoming abnormal. Both areas require a detailed knowledge of intercellular processes, which need to be analysed at the cellular and molecular levels. Understanding what goes wrong when a cell becomes cancerous requires a knowledge of the processes that ensure correct function in normal development.

Not surprisingly, sterility is an essential requirement for solutions and reagents used in the research laboratories. But sterilisation is also vital for waste material, so Petri dishes, pipettes, syringes and similar biologically contaminated items have to be carefully sterilised prior to discard. To meet the Gurdon Institute’s exacting requirements they have installed three 500 litre and two 350 litre Astell Logicolor square section sterilisers. “We have just moved premises, which is why we needed the new sterilisers,” explains the Gurdon Institute’s Kathy Hilton. “In the old building we had Astell Swiftlock units and, after 10 years, they were still working well. The tenders we had for the new units were close, but we had had such good reliability from the Swiftlocks that it contributed to our selecting in favour of Astell.”

Sterility means the statistically complete destruction of all micro-organisms including the most resistant bacteria and spores. This is a condition that is difficult to achieve and harder to prove, but Astell’s LogiColor Square Section sterilizers are designed to do just that. Astell’s pressure vessels are all constructed from 316 stainless steel and are all fully compliant with all the current standards and European Directives for this type of equipment. When the autoclave is first loaded it is full of air which has to be displaced by the steam. Astell’s pulsed vacuum system ensures that air is removed but does not allow expensive steam to be lost. As steam cools down it condenses, which means that uncontrolled steam evacuation and cooling after sterilisation could leave the phials wet which would entail a drying stage prior to storage. The Astell vacuum and heated jacket systems mean that the load is dry on completion of sterilisation. Safety is assured by an interlocked sliding door which meets all the requirements of HSE.PM73.

It is absolutely essential that sterilisation temperature is reached in all parts of the autoclave, and this is controlled by Astell’s new LogiColor Touchscreen control system. Based on an industrial PLC controller with analogue and digital input/output modules, this state of the art controller distils Astell’s 80 years of experience in a user friendly icon-driven system that meets the expectations of even the most demanding laboratories and SSUs.

The password protected operator interface consists of a wipe clean 5 x 7 QVGA colour touch screen which constantly displays temperature, pressure, real time and autoclave status. Cycle selection could not be simpler and the built in security system allows multiple access levels. An RS232 interface allows connection to a wide range of peripheral devices such as printers, data loggers and building management systems so that the temperature right through the sterilisation cycle and this can be recorded in accordance with Good Laboratory Practice.

As part of the commissioning programme, Astell will validate the autoclaves, by multi-point temperature mapping, to establish suitable loading configurations and cycle parameters which will assure repeatability of performance. Astell’s UKAS accreditation means that the validation documentation is fully traceable and is a guarantee of quality.