Clean Rooms 

 Ancient DNA, Environmental DNA,  Metabarcoding of low-quantity/quality samples 

Description 

The Genomics lab has ISO 5 and ISO 7 inspired clean rooms. Both rooms use HEPA filters to remove airborne particles or contaminants larger than 0.3 µm. The rooms have a positive air pressure system to prevent unfiltered air from entering the workspace and each room uses a UVC tower system to disinfect and inactivate any DNA or RNA contaminants present on surfaces or in aerosols.

This high standard of clean room is essential for projects that use very low amounts of DNA or RNA, such as projects studying environmental DNA, and sequencing of ancient DNA (such as museomics) samples.

Contamination from previous projects within research laboratories can cause false positives, and wasted sequencing runs. The clean rooms allow users to complete their lab work in an environment free of DNA/RNA/PCR contaminants.