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Charlotte Austin with her poster at the 10th European Spores Conference.
DWS microbiologists, Charlotte Austin and Andrew Pridmore have recently presented their findings at the 10th European Spores Conference in Cambridge in the form of a poster (click here to view). The poster is titled: Performance validation of a novel laminar flow anaerobic workstation using Bacillus atrophaeus spore suspension, and examined the removal of Bacillus spores from the work area of a Whitley A135 GMP workstation.
British Standard BS EN 12469:2000 test methodology was followed to validate the performance of the Whitley A135 GMP workstation in Active and Eco mode, with regard to protecting the internal workspace from spores of Bacillus atrophaeus ATCC 9372. A B. atrophaeous spore suspension was produced and was nebulised within the workstation work space for a 5-minute period, ejecting 2ml of spore suspension during each run. Throughout the nebulization period, 8 Tryptone Soy Agar (TSA) plates were positioned across the work area (floor tray) of the cabinet, with lids removed to expose the agar surface to the downward atmospheric flow. These plates were then incubated for 24 hours and enumerated for bacterial colonies. Zero colonies were recovered from any of the settle plates after incubation. The consistent absence of colonies recovered indicates that the filter in the workstation is highly effective in the removal of spores from the atmosphere.
Thus, our experiments have demonstrated that the A135 GMP workstation substantially eliminates bacterial and particulate contamination within the workspace and meets the requirements of BS EN 12469:2000. Find out more about our GMP Workstation range here.
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