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Anaerobic workstations offer precise and reliable atmospheric control, more stringent anaerobic conditions and consistently low running costs. One of their greatest advantages is that culture plates can be inspected at any time without disturbing the incubation conditions. In clinical laboratories, this has been proven to increase the isolation rate of anaerobic pathogens and also provide the earliest possible indication of their presence in a patient’s sample.
Don Whitley Scientific has excelled in meeting the needs of microbiologists for over 40 years, and as our customers’ needs have evolved, so too have our products. The unique Whitley Internal HEPA Filtration System is an extremely attractive feature, particularly when used in conjunction with research applications as it ensures that all of the atmosphere inside the workstation is passed through the filter hundreds of times an hour.
Over the past few years, an increased demand for using microscopes and other instruments such as the Workstation WASP Touch under anaerobic conditions resulted in the introduction of the A135 HEPA (pictured below); currently our tallest, widest, deepest workstation with a huge internal volume of 560L. The A135 is fitted with a removable front to facilitate thorough cleaning, easy replacement of the HEPA filter, and the transfer of bulk samples and larger pieces of equipment for use in the workstation. Other features include a built-in rapid airlock, integrated gas control and automatic commissioning cycle. To read the full specification and see the extensive list of factory-fitted options, please click here.
KU Leuven in Belgium were one of the first customers to purchase an A135 HEPA, and we asked them to describe the work they are doing and how this workstation has benefited their research:
“One of the key research activities in the Raes lab involves the isolation and culturing of gut anaerobes to study their metabolic and genomic properties and, ultimately, to unlock their biotherapeutic potential in human health and disease. In order to scale up these isolation efforts, we aim to move beyond conventional approaches based on agar plating and explore the application potential of novel, miniaturized, and high-throughput technologies. For testing a recently developed millifluidics-based single-cell sorting device, we soon realized that the operational space in our current DWS A35 HEPA anaerobic workstation would be insufficient. Therefore, we brought together product specialists from millifluidics and DWS to constructively discuss technical details on required dimensions, operator access, power supply, connection to an external PC, possible interference of the workstation’s pressure and the device’s heat output as well as safety aspects. This guided us towards the purchase of the DWS A135 HEPA, which is probably one of the best options currently on the market for the anaerobic integration of medium-sized pressure-controlled devices while still offering sufficient operator space and incubation volume.”
– Geert Huys, Department of Microbiology & Immunology, Rega Institute, KU Leuven & VIB Center for Microbiology, Leuven, Belgium
For one of our UK customers, however, 560L was still not big enough. They approached us in early 2018 and asked if we could build something even bigger! Always keen to rise to a challenge… Don Whitley Scientific is pleased to announce that in early 2019 we will release the first A155 HEPA Anaerobic Workstation. This exciting new product will offer all the same advantages as the A135, but with the added benefit of over 1000L of capacity. More information on the A155 will be made available in due course.
If you would like to speak to one of our sales team about our range of anaerobic workstations, or to arrange a demonstration, please contact us here.
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