We are often asked whether wearing outdoor shoes in the cell culture lab is really that bad.
Here is why you should swap those outdoor shoes for lab shoes or slippers:
Although we have five senses, we cannot rely on them to perceive everything that is going on around us.
We don’t see the clouds of aerosols 👀 when we pipette, we don’t smell 👃 the plastic abrasion when we vortex a tube. We don’t hear 👂 the steam rising from the water bath, and we don’t taste when a speck of dust enters our mouth 👄.
And we don’t see particles stirred up from the floor as we walk towards the incubator, to get our flasks when it is time to passage them ☝️.
Cell culture labs are usually clean rooms, but we must remember that even a single bacterial spore stuck to a dust particle 🦠 can cause contamination if it finds its way into your cell culture flask. The more sources of contaminants there are, the higher the risk of contamination. Simple statistics 🤷🏻♀️.
So, to reduce one source of contamination, slip on your lab shoes and enjoy a wonderful day in your cell culture lab ✨😊✨!
#CellCulture #Contamination #GCCP #STEM #MINT
Author: asban