Our Biotech Laboratory

For Dynamic42, the laboratory is the most important workplace. Here we produce our organ models, perform tests on food or drug ingredients and develop innovative ideas for improving the organ-on-chip process. Attending to the World Laboratory Day, we would like to give you exclusive insights into our workplace.

Our laboratory is located at “Bioinstrumentezentrum” (BIZ) in the university city Jena. The BIZ is a start-up center that offers best infrastructural conditions for young biotechnology companies and is characterized by close networking with research institutes. Currently, our seven-member laboratory team (five employees and two scholarship holders) works in a central laboratory of the BIZ. We expect to expand our premises in the summer of 2021. The aim is to provide additional laboratories for our production and order processing as well as for research and development.

A look behind the scenes

If you want to enter our laboratory of the genetic safety level S1, you must adhere to strict hygiene rules. In addition to washing and disinfecting the hands, a lab coat and laboratory shoes must be put on. Our laboratory shoes look like garden shoes, but reliably prevent injuries from fall and shock damage as well as contamination with chemicals or other substances.

Once in the laboratory, the many different laboratory devices stand out. In addition to various centrifuges, incubators, and fridges as well as a freezer, the Dynamic42 laboratory is equipped with safety cabinets, laboratory fume cupboards integrated into the walls and an acid-base cabinet.

Our employees prepare the biotech chips on the safety cabinets. The workbenches consist of a worktable and are shielded from the environment by a housing that is specially ventilated. They ensure a sterile environment so that the chips can be properly prepared and used to test medicines, food, or pollutants.

We store aggressive substances, such as acids or alkalis, in our acid-alkali cabinet. This safety cabinet is corrosion-resistant and designed in such a way that fumes produced by bottles that are already opened are permanently extracted to minimize the health risk.

Also striking are the laboratory fuses embedded in the wall, which consist of a fire- and chemical-resistant work surface and whose access is through a movable windscreen. When closed/semi-closed, the fume hood provides safety against spraying liquids, aerosols, hazardous gases, vapors, or uncontrolled reactions. This is important to protect employees from irritation or burns of the respiratory tract or other accidents.

The heart of our laboratory: the incubator

Important for our work is the incubator, with the help of which we create controlled conditions (for example temperature) for our cell cultures. After the preparation of the biotech chips and the application of cells, they are stored and cultivated there at 37°C.

To ensure that the cells in the biochips are well and supplied with all the important nutrients, changing medium is part of our daily laboratory routine. Here, the medium is removed from the biochip using a pipette and replaced by new medium. During this process, our employees can take samples for later examinations. In addition, the general behavior of the cells is checked daily. A process that, of course, takes place with the help of an instrument that should not be missing in any biotech laboratory: our microscope.

Picture: Dynamic42

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