Setting up a new laboratory is always a challenge. But setting up a bacteriophage lab in a previously water-damaged space that had been unused for ten years? That’s a story for the ages - and one filled with equal parts humor, hard work, and heartfelt gratitude.
Our journey began in Frankfurt, Germany, within the Department of Infectious Diseases of Prof. Maria Vehreschild at the University Hospital. The rooms earmarked for the new lab hadn’t seen action since a catastrophic water incident left the floors looking like rolling hills. A complete renovation was in order, including ripping up the old flooring and starting from scratch. What awaited us after the dust settled? A blank canvas of tables, sinks, and dreams - without a single piece of lab equipment.
A shopping odyssey
Equipping the lab became a full-time sport. We gathered an almost comical number of quotes from suppliers and spent countless hours sweet-talking companies to nudge us higher up on waitlists. Through persistence (and daily phone calls), we secured some fantastic devices and robots that have truly transformed and streamlined our lab work. One of our victories: a shiny new TapeStation, ending the era of electrophoresis gels that had a bad habit of overrunning while Silvia was stuck in yet another long meeting. In addition, for >500 material items of the lab, we had to comb through the hospital’s internal ordering system, which features no product photos - just one short headline without description. From filter tips to magnetic stands, it was a game of memory and deduction.
Fig. 1. Demonstrating examples of what not to do in the lab.
Knowledge, handymen, and microsiemens
The organizational skills we developed in our previous labs, from managing orders to handling repairs, proved invaluable for this venture. That experience was essential in identifying the devices that would best suit our phage research. Of course, not everything had been learned in advance. Case in point: when a technician asked Silvia what conductivity level in microsiemens/cm she preferred for the water purification system. Her perplexed expression - oh, how we wish we had a camera ready for that moment!
We tackled everything from installing new gas lines for cell culture to selecting the exact right wall paint to meet genetic engineering certification requirements. Thanks to incredible support from the whole hospital and regulatory authorities, we achieved further certifications for BioSafety Level II pathogens and animal disease agents. Along the way, there were painful lessons - like discovering the hard way that the sticky plate in our shaking incubator wasn’t quite sticky enough for certain racks with bacterial cultures.
Fig. 2. No more sticky plates in our shaking incubators.
The people who made it possible
The result? Three sparkling lab spaces, one bustling office, a cozy common room, and a well-stocked storage room. Most importantly, we now have an unbelievably brilliant team that brings this space to life every day. We can’t imagine a better group to work with.
Fig. 3. The new lab!
This entire venture would have been impossible without the collective effort of so many people. From the tireless craftsmen and administrative staff at the University Hospital to the global network of phage scientists who shared their advice - thank you.
Next time, maybe we’ll hire a lab planner. But for now, knowing every inch of this lab and every beep of the machines is proving to be a secret superpower. Here’s to many discoveries ahead!
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