Policies for managing resources in the Lamichhane Laboratory
Equipment
Authorization from our lab is required to use any of our equipment. Most of the large or high-cost equipment in the Lamichhane lab, such as large centrifuge, autoclave, FPLC, and HPLC. also have usage record notebook where each user is required to record their usage of the equipment. Equipment such as incubators, shaker incubators and freezers in which live organisms are contained, the containing vessel (tubes, flasks etc) should have three identifiers clearly printed. They are: brief name of the item, initials of the person whom it belongs to, and the date of the start of the study. For instance, to grow E. coli DH5a, Peter Smith should label the tube, E. coli DH5a, PS, mm-dd-yy. We reserve the right to discard any container without ALL THREE identifiers. Incubators and shaking incubators are deep cleaned twice a year with a decontaminating agent.
Consumables
Our lab maintains a record of all consumables purchased by our lab. This record includes the date order placed, person for whom the consumable was ordered, brief name+description of the consumable, vendor, catalog #, quantity, total price, budget # from which the consumable was purchased, data order received and any notes associated with the order.
Biosafety Cabinets
BSCs are cleaned with LPH on every Friday. BSCs need to be cleaned with 70% ethanol of LPH prior to and after using the unit.
Bacterial Strains
There are three categories of bacterial strains in our lab. Below are descriptions of the categories and policies for their management.
Reference strains: These strains are well-documented in published literature and can be obtained from reliable sources like ATCC. Our laboratory is willing to share these strains unless restricted by Material Transfer Agreements (MTAs). However, when it comes to transferring these strains to other institutions, we've encountered challenges due to restrictions imposed by MTAs. These agreements commonly prevent the transfer of biological agents from a third party, which includes us.
Recombinant strains: These strains exhibit significant differences from their wild-type or parent counterparts. If our laboratory created and published these strains, we are more than willing to share them. Since our lab owns these tangible assets, we can directly provide these strains to those making requests. However, it is probable that an MTA needs to be filed, unless the strains are specifically needed to fulfill a project we initiated but is being conducted at a different site or institution.
In general: If we have generated a strain, we are in a position to provide the strain with an MTA. If we did not generate, but acquired the strain, we are a third party and therefore restricted to disseminate these strains.
Clinical isolates: Our laboratory maintains a collection of clinical isolates, sourced from JHH Clinical Microbiology and other institutions. Isolates acquired from external institutions come with Material Transfer Agreements (MTAs), restricting our lab to specific studies and prohibiting sharing with other laboratories. Until 2020, we freely shared isolates from JHU. However, recent revisions in JHU's institutional policy for cell lines and clinical isolates require the providing laboratory to bear responsibilities for downstream issues, posing challenges under HIPAA rules.
Consequently, our lab faced delays in initiating projects involving the transfer of clinical isolates to a different site due to increased bureaucratic demands. In response, we developed an approach to align with HIPAA rules, adhere to JHU policies, minimize paperwork, and protect our lab. We assign unique IDs to all clinical strains distinct from the source's ID. Subsequently, we destroy all records containing identifiers from the source, rendering the origin and original identity untraceable. While this ensures compliance and reduces the risk of patient identification, it also prevents us from sharing isolates, as we cannot discern the source or the originating institution's sharing policies. This change can be observed by comparing clinical isolate IDs in our publications before and after 2021.
In recent years, we have obtained isolates with explicit commitments not to act as a third-party source, navigating the challenges posed by evolving institutional policies.