I can just picture the meeting of the product development team – the same meeting happening in every laboratory supply company around the world. Disillusioned bench scientists seated around an expensive table, leaning towards a speaker phone as the vice-president in charge of new technology makes it clear that true innovation is too risky. There is too much blood loss on the cutting edge.
“What we need is any tout-worthy improvement, no matter how modest. Shorten a procedure by 30 minutes. Cut the enzyme required in half. One touch operation with a suite of pre-programmed operations. As long as the product requires specialized consumables to which we have exclusive distribution rights!”
My insight arrived on the back of an hour spent investigating the marvels of Millipore’s SNAP I.D. System – a snazzy filtration based system for processing Western blots that claims to shorten incubation and washing times to 30 minutes in total, reduce the amount of both primary and secondary antibodies required (after extensive optimization which undoubtedly requires more antibody than I would have used in the course of my experiments had I simply followed my instincts in the first place), and improve sensitivity, as evidenced by several remarkably clean examples – possibly too clean. What’s not to love? And since the device was recently purchased by our shared molecular biology facility, I thought I would give it a go.
But as I read through the details of the operations manual, it soon became evident that I would have to supply a non-reusable ‘blot holder’ – a chunky polycarbonate reservoir lined with some sort of magical Millipore filter. I was a little miffed, but I rang up the distributors to inquire as to their cost – a shocking $11 Australian per blot. I was appalled, but could not resist performing the calculations of time-cost savings based on my current salary. In reality, the actual hands-on time of performing a Western by traditional methods turned out to be considerably less than 30 minutes. Therefore, using their device would actually cost me more time and money for a supposed increase in sensitivity that is not required for my application.
In this world of ecological concern for over-flowing landfills, I find it nothing short of criminal that companies strive to develop products that require unnecessary plastic consumables so that they can guarantee a continued source of income from each product they sell. What is so wrong about just creating a genuine time-and-money saving procedure that also benefits the planet?
And as my imagination harkens back to that board room meeting, I imagine myself there, voicing my concerns for the environment, and being told with by a marketing executive with a perfectly straight face “Well, actually, the polycarbonate in each blot reservoir represents one balloon’s worth of a carbon sink, so in reality, we ARE saving the planet – one Western at a time.”
I’ve thought about this before (shameless self-promotion. But really, I have nothing else to add. All my thoughts on wastefulness in the lab are there )
Well done, Eva. I have no delusions that I have ever had an original thought.
I knew a lab that used only glass pipets and washed out their falcon tubes (and occasionally their Eppendorf tubes). They also re-ran agarose gels until they practically melted. They may have got a gold star for being environmentally sensitve, but their experiments seldom worked and they were frequently visiting the emergency room for cut fingers!
Oh, why didn’t I become a proper biologist and spend my days counting ants on tropical islands instead of generating tons of useless trash in pursuit of even more useless publications!
Reducing time for a western with 30 minutes doesn’t seem that much. I must confess I’ve been won over to one of these fast and fancy western transfer system using disposable plastic, and I do feel a bit guilty (but it’s seriously convenient and saves like an hour and a half…come on :)). My only comfort is that I’m no longer using methanol, that probably counts for something. However it’s a good point that we should try to think a bit more environmental friendly, that is frequently forgotten about.
’Oh, why didn’t I become a proper biologist and spend my days counting ants on tropical islands instead of generating tons of useless trash in pursuit of even more useless publications!’
Oh, I like that. Said similar to myself many a time.