Shared laboratories can turn missing pens, pipettes and specialized instruments into serious problems, particularly when an experiment is time-sensitive. Researchers told Nature that simple measures—including inventories, sign-out procedures, clear ownership labels, secure storage and backup supplies—can reduce accidental borrowing and help protect experiments without turning anyone into the lab’s “secret police.”
When Greg Banard began a master’s degree in chemistry at the University of Calgary in Canada, equipment was often hard to find. As a scientist with strong preferences about the type of spatula she used, Banard became frustrated whenever her favorite tools disappeared. After several kits went missing, she decided she could no longer spend time searching for misplaced equipment.
That frustration led Banard to create a portable pouch that fitted into a lab-coat pocket. “Most of the things I ended up reaching for myself,” she says. Although Banard now works as an industrial designer, she still keeps the pouch as a memento of her research days.
At the time, Banard was working in a dye laboratory, investigating the functionality of perylene diimide dyes for use in the active layer of solar cells. The pouch held an assortment of equipment, including diamond and carbide glass cutters, ear curettes for handling small amounts of powdered dye, test-tube holders, pencils, spatulas, small scissors, felt markers and tweezers.
“It was a busy lab, and people needed to get their work done,” she says. “The best way to get the job done was to know where everything was.”
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Missing equipment can do more than cause irritation. Scientists often rely on specialized tools to keep delicate experiments running smoothly. Momoko Takahashi, a neurobiologist at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, remembers panicking when she could not find a syringe during a time-sensitive procedure involving mouse neurons.
“If you fail at one particular moment, it starts a domino effect,” she says. “If the experiment wasn’t successful, I just wasted the lives of a lot of animals, and I feel really guilty about that.”
Routine borrowing, accidental removal, mislabeling and the movement of samples can make shared laboratories feel like crime scenes. Reddit is filled with scientists asking how to prevent items from “disappearing” and seeking ways to track down lost equipment. But many apparent “thefts” are accidental, or at least not malicious. Researchers told Nature how they protect their work, equipment and sanity.
Prevent equipment from disappearing
Introduce a system
Researchers said that all kinds of equipment can vanish from laboratories, from small items such as pens and pipettes to expensive machines such as centrifuges and computers. Many emphasized the value of inventory lists, sign-out sheets and shared-equipment guidelines. These systems make it harder for items to disappear without a trace.
Takahashi says laboratories should centralize their organization by appointing formal or informal laboratory managers and documenting equipment use. “Labs are small businesses and should be run like small businesses,” she says. Takahashi adds that she has found herself acting as a “pseudo lab manager” in every laboratory where she has worked. “Implementing organizational controls right away is critical to ensuring everything runs smoothly.”
Sandra Petrus-Royler, a cell-therapy researcher at the University of Cambridge in the UK, also recommends creating a detailed inventory from the outset. A good record can show who has used a particular sample and make it easier to determine when and how something went missing.
Set clear procedures and usage rules
Procedures are especially important when researchers share equipment or space. An Australian PhD student who asked not to be named said that shared refrigerators and freezers, reagents and ventilation hoods were the most common sources of conflict at her facility.
To ease these problems, the university introduced a system for reserving benches and food. Each person has an assigned tray in the refrigerators and freezers, and each tray has a controlled inventory to track the movement of items and samples.
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George Chen, a neurologist at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles in California, says confusion can arise when multiple laboratories contribute funding for expensive machines and equipment. Clearly showing who can use an item can make a significant difference. A poster explaining which materials are jointly owned and can be shared between laboratories may be enough.
“Be transparent and find a system where everyone can easily see what’s going on,” Chen says.
Mark ownership clearly
Clarifying ownership can prevent disputes. One of the first things Takahashi did after joining her current laboratory was label everything. “I always tell undergraduates to write their initials or write their name,” she says.
In Banard’s laboratory, each member was assigned a color of electrical tape to wrap around designated tools. Banard’s color, for example, was green.
The Australian PhD student says that clearly labeling reagents and pipettes can help people understand what they may and may not use. After her laboratory was accused of stealing antibodies from another group, its members began applying custom stickers to their property.
Her research group also created a code name for a cell line after cultured cells began going missing. The idea was that potential “thieves” would not know what the code name referred to. She says the cells stopped disappearing after the group began using code names.
Hidden labels can offer another layer of protection. A former neuroscientist at the University of Oxford in the UK, who asked to remain anonymous to avoid revealing his laboratory’s methods, says his group hid markers inside hardware.
“Visible labels can be easily peeled off or rubbed, so hidden labels allow us to prove that misplaced equipment is ours,” he says.
Store equipment securely
Takahashi recommends keeping equipment in cabinets or drawers instead of leaving it on an open bench, where it can be removed or picked up accidentally. People are less likely to rummage through a drawer than to take something from a bench, she says. Before going home, she once stored her prized forceps in a drawer.
When additional protection is needed, PhD students can use a lockable box or container accessible only to them or their team. Petrus-Royler once bought a refrigerator with a lock to create more storage space while signaling that access was restricted.
“I never took the lock off, but adding a little physical barrier helped,” she says.
Reduce the impact of missing equipment
Keep backup supplies separate
If equipment or supplies do go missing, a secondary stock can reduce the disruption. Petrus-Royler and Chen recommend maintaining a backup inventory, because commonly used items can run out faster than researchers can replace them. Misplacement or theft can make the problem worse.
Chen keeps an additional supply of tissue-culture plates and pipette tips in a hidden drawer. “It’s not expensive, but it always seems to disappear from the cabinet before someone reorders it,” he says.
Bring personal tools when necessary
Even commonly available laboratory tools can disappear. “Even in a well-equipped laboratory, things can happen,” Banard says.
Researchers can plan for that possibility by keeping some personal instruments separate and clearly identifying them. Chen does this with several of his own tools, making it clear that they belong to him so that others do not pick them up accidentally or intentionally.
Source: www.nature.com