WO2008078978A1

WO2008078978A1 - On site laboratory

Info

Publication number: WO2008078978A1
Application number: PCT/MY2007/000090
Authority: WO
Inventors: Lai Seng Ho; Kodi Isparan Kandasamy
Original assignee: Terra Garden Biotech (M) Sdn. Bhd.
Priority date: 2006-12-26
Filing date: 2007-12-24
Publication date: 2008-07-03
Also published as: MY140433A

Abstract

The present invention relates to a mobile stand-alone tissue culture laboratory (10) ready for starting up research and development activities in tissue cultures. Besides that, the mobile stand-alone tissue culture laboratory (10) is also used for scaling up commercial tissue culture production. The mobile laboratory includes four major compartments. The four compartments are changing area (12), media preparation area (14), culture transfer area (16) and culture growth area (18). Each compartment is separated with a sliding door (30, 48, 60) respectively. Each compartment is also fitted with an air conditioning unit (62). The tissue culture laboratory also includes utility supply. The utility supply comprises of two way-switches (74), emergency lights (70), electrical ballasts (72), growth room lights (68), power/plug points, lighting points, ceiling lights (54), incoming water supply (56) and drainage system (58).

Description

ON SITE LABORATORY

FIELD OF INVENTION The present invention relates to a laboratory that is used for research and development (R&D). The present invention more particularly relates to a fully equipped laboratory ready for starting up R&D activities in tissue culture and scaling up commercial tissue culture production.

BACKGROUND ART OF THE INVENTION

Conventional tissue culture laboratory based on prior art comprising of a general washing area, media preparation, sterilization and storage area, aseptic transfer area, culture rooms and data collection area. AU these facilities in the conventional tissue culture laboratory require large space and huge amount of cost for installation. The media preparation area in the conventional laboratory usually covers a large area. After preparing the tissue culture, the media preparation and the culture transfer areas need to be sanitized or sterilized. Therefore, in a conventional tissue culture laboratory, a large area is needed to be sanitized or sterilized. In addition, the conventional tissue culture laboratory is required to be placed closer to the plant production area.

In this regard, it is strongly recommended that to develop a tissue culture laboratory as a mobile laboratory, which consumes a small area that includes changing area, media preparation area, culture transfer area and culture growth area. Therefore, there is a need for a tissue culture laboratory which solves the problems of large space, installation costs, sterilization and mobility.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a preferred embodiment of stand alone mobile laboratory with plurality compartments for starting up research and development (R&D) activities in tissue culture as well as for scaling up commercial tissue-culture based production. The stand alone mobile laboratory comprises at least one entrance to the laboratory, at least one changing area compartment, at least one media preparation compartment, at least one culture-transfer compartment, at least one culture growth compartment and at least one emergency exit. The changing area compartment includes means to ensure transition of personnel from non-clean environment to laboratory environment. The media preparation compartment includes means to kick-start media preparation for culture propagation. The culture transfer compartment includes means to kick-start culture initiation and multiplication. The culture growth compartment includes facilities to grow the culture. Finally, the mobile tissue culture laboratory includes an emergency exit at the culture growth compartment. Each changing area compartment, media preparation compartment, culture transfer compartment and culture growth compartment is separateable with a door respectively. The laboratory also includes a water filtration system placeable in any location within the compartments. An incoming water supply is channeled through the water filtration system to ensure continuous clean water supply to reverse osmosis system which is used in laboratory. A drainage system is also provided for waste-water discharge from the laboratory. A plurality of growth room lights are provided in the culture growth compartment. The growth room lights are day light simulated type and they are integrated with temperature controls to allow automatic switching off in the event of temperature rise due to air-conditioning malfunction. The mobile tissue culture laboratory is moveable to any location by means of transportation.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED DRAWINGS

The present invention will be fully understood from the detailed description given herein below and the accompanying preferred drawings which are given by way of illustration only, and thus are not limitative of the present invention, wherein:

Figure 1 shows a perspective view of the preferred tissue culture laboratory.

Figure 2 shows a top view of the preferred tissue culture laboratory.

Figure 3 shows the plug and lighting point of the preferred tissue culture laboratory. Figure 4 shows the water supply and drainage system of the preferred tissue culture laboratory.

Figure 5a shows the portional perspective view of the culture growth compartment of Figure 1.

Figure 5b shows the top view of the culture growth compartment of Figure 5a.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT A detailed description of preferred embodiments of the invention is disclosed herein. It should be understood, however, the disclosed preferred embodiments are merely exemplary of the invention, which may be embodied in various forms. Therefore, the details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting, but merely as the basis for the claims and for teaching one skilled in the art of the invention.

The preferred embodiment describes a fully equipped laboratory (10), ready for starting-up research and development (R&D) activities in plant tissue culture as well as for the purpose of scaling-up commercial tissue culture-based plant production. The laboratory (10) is known as instant tissue culture laboratory. The laboratory is a stand alone mobile laboratory which comprises of four major compartments namely changing area (12), media preparation area (14), culture transfer area (16) and culture growth area (18). The mobile laboratory is not limited to one compartment for each changing area, media preparation area, culture transfer area and culture growth area but to at least one compartment for each area. The length of the tissue culture laboratory (10) is preferably 40ft only. In future, the length of the laboratory will be modified according to customer needs and specification (i.e. through customization).

- The changing area (12) is the first compartment of the instant tissue culture laboratory (10). Entrance (46) to the tissue culture laboratory is at the first compartment, i.e. changing area. The changing area (12) consists of facilities such as shoe-rack (20), cloth hanger (22), main switch board (76), utility storage cupboard (78), rubbish bins, collection bins, a computer system (26), lab chairs (non-fabric chairs) (24) and water filtration system (28). These facilities ensure transition from external (non-clean) environment to internal (cleaner) laboratory environment. The shoe rack (20) is provided for change of shoes prior to entering the media preparation area (14). A cloth hanger (22) is provided with lab coats. The main switch board (76) is the main electrical distribution box (DB). The utility storage cupboard (78) is used for storing away cleaning equipments such as mops, brooms etc. As for water filtration system (28), a sand bed filtration system is provided with back wash to ensure clean water supply to a reverse osmosis system (32) which is used in the laboratory.

There is a first sliding door (30) in between the first compartment and second compartment. The sliding door (30) is beside the water filter (28). The second compartment is the media preparation area (14). Entrance to the media preparation area (14) is via the sliding door (30) from the changing area. The media preparation area (14) contains all the necessary facilities, equipment and chemicals to kick start media preparation of the tissue culture immediately. A washing area (34) is placed at the entrance of the media preparation area (14). A refrigerator (36) is placed next to the washing area (34). Lab benches (42) are placed opposite the washing area. An autoclave machine (40) is placed next to the refrigerator (36). The other facilities, equipment and chemicals in the media preparation (14) area such as drying area, stacking shelves (open shelves for storage purposes mounted on the wall) (38), a cabinet or shelves racks with doors (44), balances, pH meter, hot-plate magnetic stirrer, auto clave machine (40), reverse osmosis water system (32), measuring cylinders, beakers, pipette, culture vessels, plastic baskets and trays, basic media components and washing detergents such as Clorox. After preparing the tissue culture, the media preparation area is sanitized or sterilized. Compared to the conventional laboratory, the instant tissue culture laboratory is easily sterilized due to its small working area. The third compartment of the tissue culture laboratory (10) is the culture transfer area (16). Entrance to the culture transfer area (16) is via a second sliding door (48) from the media preparation area (14). This area contains all the necessary facilities, equipments and chemicals to kick-start culture initiation, multiplication, shoot elongation and rooting activities. The shoot multiplication, shoot elongation and rooting activities are normally processes for all plant tissue cultures. The facilities are such as laminar air flow cabinets (50), non-fabric chairs (24), stainless steel trolleys (52), glass bead sterilizer, plastic waste collection bins and stacking shelves (38). The laminar air flow cabinets (50) are placed at the left side of the culture transfer area (16). Non-fabric chairs (24) are placed in front of each laminar air flow cabinets (50). Stacking shelves (38) are mounted onto the right wall (opposite to the laminar air flow cabinets).

The fourth compartment of the tissue culture laboratory (10) is the culture growth area (18). Entrance to the culture growth area (18) is via a third sliding door

(60) from the culture transfer area (16). The culture growth area (18) is designed in such a manner to be capable of handling over 30-50 thousand cultures at any one time (depending on the type of culture vessel used, and species being cultured). This culture growth room (18) is built with compactors type culture growing racks (64) which has six (6) shelves, each fitted with growth room lights (68) to maximize the space of utilization. This growth room is anticipated to handle 100% of the total holding capacity of the instant tissue culture laboratory. Finally, the instant tissue culture laboratory (10) ends with an emergency exit (66). The emergency exit (66) is at the left end corner as entering the final compartment of the tissue culture laboratory (10) via the third sliding door (60) from the culture transfer area.

Utility supply to the instant tissue culture laboratory (10) is designed in such a way that, it is fully a plug-and play system, i.e. with totally integrated system inside laboratory. The utility supply includes two-way switches (74), emergency lights (70), ceiling lights (54), electrical ballasts (72), growth room lights (68) and power/plug points. The two way switches (74) placed in strategic locations (i.e. entrance and exit to each section) to facilitate entrance and exits. Emergency lights (70) are placed at strategic locations on each section to provide sufficient illumination in the event of power failure. Growth room lights (68) are special light type (i.e. day light simulated) for growing the cultured tissues in the culture growth area. Growth room lights (68) are integrated with temperature controls to allow automatic switching-off (i.e. in the event of temperature rising due to air conditioning failure). All of the electrical ballasts (72) are placed on the top of each compactor rack to exclude excessive heat and to facilitate servicing. All power/plug points and lighting points (84) are laid out in a manner to accommodate easy access. Easy access of the power/plug points and lighting points (84) of a preferred embodiment is shown in Figure 3. There are two types of power/plug points, i.e. 2OA and 13A power/plug points. The 2OA power/plug points (80) are for the air conditioning units and autoclave units, whereas the 13A power/plug points (82) are for the equipments such as the computer system, water pumps, reverse osmosis system, balances, pH meter, refrigerator, hot-plates, laminar air flow cabinets, etc. As for plumbing system, an incoming main water supply (56) is channeled through the sand-bed filtration system (28) with a backwash option to ensure continuous clean water supply to reverse osmosis (RO) system (32) as shown in Figure 4. A drainage system (58) is provided for waste - water discharge as shown in Figure 4. Each compartment (12, 14, 16, 18) is fitted with air- conditioning unit (62), which has an auto start mechanism, for automatic start-up upon power restoration especially in the event of power failure.

The instant tissue culture laboratory (10) is also provided with a manual on basic tissue culture techniques. The instant tissue culture laboratory is a stand alone mobile laboratory. It can be moved to any position by means of transportation. Moving the instant tissue culture laboratory into means of transportation is known by the person skilled in art and will not be described herein. The mobile tissue culture laboratory is not limited for plant production but can be obviously used for any micro-biological processes and scaling-up commercial tissue culture production. The micro-biological processes such as bacteria cultures, fungal cultures, and microbial fermentation are known by the person skilled in art and will not be described herein. Quantities and positions of the facilities, equipments and utility supplies in each compartment are not fixed as shown in the preferred embodiment but it can be varied depending to users and manufacturers of the tissue culture laboratory.

The foregoing description of the preferred embodiments of the invention has been presented for the purpose of illustration and description, rather than limitation.

The preferred embodiments of this invention have been disclosed, however, various changes may be made without departing from the principles and scope of the invention.

Claims

1. A close environment container for conducting laboratory micro-biological processes characterized in that the container is a stand alone mobile laboratory (10) with a plurality of compartments and said stand alone mobile laboratory includes: i) at least one entrance (46) to the laboratory (10); ii) at least one changing area compartment (12) with means to ensure transition of personnel from non-clean environment to laboratory environment; iii) at least one media preparation compartment (14) with means to kick-start preparation of culture propagation; iv) at least one culture transfer compartment (16) with means to kick-start culture initiation and multiplication; v) at least one culture growth compartment (18) includes facilities to grow the culture; vi) at least one emergency exit (66); and

wherein the each changing area compartment (12), media preparation compartment (14), culture transfer compartment (16) and culture growth compartment (18) is separateable with a door (30, 48, 60) respectively; and

wherein the mobile laboratory (10) includes a water filtration system (28) placeable in any location within the compartments; and

wherein an incoming water supply (56) is channeled through the water filtration system (28); and

wherein a drainage system (58) is provided for waste-water discharge; and

wherein a plurality of growth room lights (68) which are day light simulated type are provided in the culture growth compartment (18) and the growth room lights (68) are integrated with temperature controls to allow automatic switching off in the event of temperature rise due to air conditioning (62) malfunction.