Grenova News

In a laboratory, tough decisions are regularly made to determine how best to conduct critical experiments and testing. Over time, pipette tips have adapted to suit labs across the globe and provide the tools so technicians and scientists have the ability to do important research. This is especially true as COVID-19 continues to spread throughout the United States. Epidemiologists and virologists are working around the clock to come up with a treatment for the virus. Filtered pipette tips made of plastics are used to study the virus and the once bulky, glass pipettes now are sleek and automated. A total of 10 plastic pipette tips are used to perform a single COVID-19 test currently and most of the tips that are used now have a filter in them that is supposed to block out 100% of aerosols and prevent cross contamination when sampling. But how much are these significantly more expensive and environmentally costly tips really benefiting labs across the country? Should labs decide to ditch the filter? 

Laboratory consumables like pipette tips are often forgotten when labs across the globe look for ways to save money and the environment. Although small and seemingly insignificant, discarding pipette tips can have an enormous impact on a laboratory’s carbon footprint. Recent research conducted by Grenova Inc. has shown that the company’s pipette tip cleaners effectively clean tips without carryover and decrease a company’s carbon footprint by 93% per wash. In addition, if a 96-count rack of standard, polypropylene-made pipette tips are washed with a Tipnovus, a laboratory’s carbon footprint will be decreased by 15.18 lbs. per 10-minute wash cycle. So why has every pharmaceutical, biotechnological, and clinical lab not adopted this technology yet in 2020? 

Now more than ever, businesses around the world are placing a premium on keeping not only the environment and planet healthy, but employees as well. Pipette manufacturer Sartorius details that more than 40% of lab professionals suffer from pipetting-caused disorders. In the industries where lab technicians work such as education, healthcare, medicine, and biology, injuries associated with repetitive tasks like pipetting are on the rise.  

When pipettes were invented in the 19th century by Luis Pasteur, little thought was given to the environment and even less thought was given to laboratory consumables like pipette tips. But as laboratory research testing increases with the onset of new viruses, like COVID-19, and ever-changing government regulations are signed into law, everything laboratories do now is amplified. This includes what these labs do for the environment. To demonstrate Grenova’s impact on the lab industry and the environment, our team partnered with third party researchers to study how technology created by Grenova to wash and reuse pipette tips can reduce the carbon footprint of manufactured pipette tips.