The Scientific Observer Issue 33
Magazine
Published: December 22, 2023
|
Last Updated: February 29, 2024
Credit: Technology Networks
As we’re nearing the end of 2023, this issue of The Scientific Observer is looking to the future.
In our feature article, we ask leading scientists for their insights on major advancing fields, from cell and gene therapies to psychedelics. Discover the technologies and techniques propelling these areas forward and explore the potential challenges researchers may face.
We also hear about the results of a new report from My Green Lab that discusses the environmental cost of the pharma and biotech industry and identifies key areas for change in the future.
Issue 33 highlights include:
• Why Scientists Should Care About Society Publishing
• Biotech and Pharma’s Carbon Impact Insights From My Green Lab
• Your Lack of Sleep Is Hurting You
Why Scientists Should
Care About Society
Publishing
Biotech and Pharma’s
Carbon Impact: Insights
From My Green Lab
ISSUE 33, DECEMBER 2023
The Next Chapter of The Next Chapter of
Sponsored by
2
CONTENT
FROM THE NEWSROOM 05
ARTICLE
Why Scientists Should Care
About Society Publishing 07
Karen Steward
RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT
Your Lack of Sleep Is
Hurting You 12
Suhanee Mitragotri
FEATURE ARTICLE
The Next Chapter of Science 14
Molly Campbell
ARTICLE
Biotech and Pharma's Carbon
Impact: Insights From My
Green Lab 23
Anna MacDonald
ARTICLE
Integrating Sustainability Into
the Lab With Martin Farley 27
Lucy Fell & Lucy Lawrence
12 23
14
FEATURE
The Next Chapter
of Science
Molly Campbell
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3
Kate Harrison, PhD
Kate is a Senior
Science Writer for
Technology Networks.
EDITORS’ NOTE CONTRIBUTORS
Have an idea for a story?
If you would like to contribute to
The Scientific Observer, please
feel free to email our friendly
editorial team.
Anna MacDonald
Anna is a Senior
Science Editor for
Technology Networks.
Karen Steward, PhD
Karen is a Senior
Scientific Specialist for
Technology Networks.
Lucy Lawrence
Lucy is a Senior Digital
Content Producer for
Technology Networks.
Molly Campbell
Molly is a Senior
Science Writer for
Technology Networks.
Suhanee Mitragotri
Suhanee is a student
at Harvard University,
majoring in neuroscience
with a minor in global
health and health policy.
Dear Readers,
Welcome to the issue 33 of The Scientific Observer.
As we reflect on the past year's achievements and challenges,
the final issue of 2023 invites readers to consider the broader
implications of scientific research. By fostering a conscientious
approach to research, we can collectively contribute to a more
sustainable and interconnected future.
Advances in biopharma and biotech are critical for progressing
modern medicine, but at what cost to the environment? A new
report by the non-profit organization My Green Lab sheds light
on the carbon implications of these industries. My Green Lab’s
CEO calls for a collective commitment to reducing the ecological footprint of these essential fields in an exclusive interview
with Technology Networks.
In issue 33’s feature article, we ask leading scientists for their
take on the future of science. Through a series of interviews,
these experts share insights on the major advancing fields, shedding light on the technologies and techniques propelling these
areas forward and the potential challenges that may lie ahead.
Once, we relied on print and a trip to the library to find past
research papers. Now, we are very much in a digital age where
information can be gathered at the click of a button. This has
drastically changed the scientific publishing landscape. Join
Karen Steward as she explores the role that societies and society
publishing play in shaping scientific research dissemination.
Finally, make sure you check out our news team’s selection of
breaking science research for this month’s issue, featuring stories from the effects of Bikram yoga on depressive symptoms to
the role of plastic-eating bacteria in waste recycling.
We would like to wish our readers a Merry Christmas, and a
Happy New Year.
The Technology Networks Editorial Team
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From the Newsroom
5 FROM THE NEWSROOM 5
An eight-week clinical trial explored the effects of Bikram yoga
on depressive symptoms.
JOURNAL: Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.
Bikram Yoga Reduces Depressive
Symptoms in Clinical Trial
MOLLY CAMPBELL
A new study has hinted at the possible molecular mechanisms
linking exercise to inflammation control.
JOURNAL: Science Immunology.
Exercise Boosts AntiInflammatory Immune Cells
RUAIRI J MACKENZIE
Complex ethical, environmental and political concerns surrounding climate change may be causing people to reconsider having
children, according to research from University College London.
JOURNAL: PLOS Climate.
Are Climate Change Concerns
Affecting People’s Reproductive
Choices?
SARAH WHELAN
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Check out the Technology Networks newsroom.
A new, engineered strain of E. coli can digest plastics and transform them into a useful feedstock compound for nylon, drugs,
fragrances and other materials.
JOURNAL: ACS Central Science.
Plastic-Eating Bacteria Turn Waste
Into Useful Materials
ALEX BEADLE
A study that claims ultra-processed foods are not more appealing than less processed foods has been called into question.
JOURNAL: Appetite.
Researchers Dispute Findings
of Study on the Appeal of UltraProcessed Foods
LEO BEAR-MCGUINNESS
FROM THE NEWSROOM 6
7
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Most people in science
are no strangers to scientific societies. A few
years into an academic
career, you’ve likely either attended a
conference, symposium or workshop
organized and/or sponsored by a society. You might have received funding
from them, become a member of one
or more to connect with others in
your field, published a paper with one
of their journals or maybe even been a
reviewer yourself.
But where do society journals sit in
our scientific publishing picture and
how does publishing fit with societies?
AN IMPORTANT ROLE FOR
SOCIETIES IN SCIENCE
There are many scientific societies
covering all disciplines, ranging from
the very broad, global institutions, to
the very specific and geographically
focused groups. But irrespective of
size or reach, they fulfil a number
of important roles for the scientific
community. “Learned societies
bring researchers together for a wide
variety of reasons; primarily to discuss the advances in their field,” Dr.
Stuart Taylor, director of publishing
at the Royal Society says. “They also
reward excellence, organize and agree
on the conduct of their disciplines,
provide various types of grants and
bursaries (especially to early career
researchers), set standards and
conventions, do public outreach and
education, publish guidelines, policy
reports and other outputs, engage in
dialogue with universities, funders
and government, etc.” In essence,
societies are important to the scientific community because they are the
community and are fundamental to
the support, success and integrity of
the research produced.
However, despite the voluntary
support of many that help to make societies what they are, these typically
charitable organizations still require
the means and funds to be able to support core paid roles and the activities
they organize and contribute to.
One way in which they do that is
through their not-for-profit publishing activities.
A PUBLISHING DICHOTOMY
Although the difference may not
be immediately obvious to readers
or submitting scientists, journals
fall into two broad categories: the
not-for-profit society journals and
the for-profit commercial journals.
Why Scientists Should Care About
Society Publishing
KAREN STEWARD, PhD
8
“Learned society journals are distinct from commercial journals in an
important respect. They use the surplus from their publishing to support
the research community they serve
(this support can take many forms).
Commercial journals, on the other
hand, are run as businesses and the
profits are invested in the business
and to provide shareholder value,”
Taylor explains.
Dr. Sarah Tegen is the senior vice
president and chief publishing
officer in the Publications Division
at the American Chemical Society
(ACS), a not-for-profit publisher.
“ACS Publications publishes more
than 80 journals that span the
breadth and depth of chemistry and
related sciences, providing critical
information and publishing venues
to chemists of all types,” she says.
“Our editors are practicing members
of the community who have their
fingers on the pulse of the latest
research. Many of our professional
staff are chemists, too, and we are
committed to improving all people’s
lives through the transforming power of chemistry.”
Although the profits are invested
differently, that’s not to say that
commercial journals are any less
valuable. In fact, many high impact
journals fall within the commercial
category, but their model is different.
Differences between society and
commercial journals may also be
ref lected in aspects such as payment
(or not) of editors and the peer review process, with some commercial
journals able to offer incentives to
reviewers, a contentious subject
in itself.
“Commercial publishers often
operate on a scale that dwarfs notfor-profit journals. This gives the
largest of them economies of scale
and buying power that other publishers have a hard time matching.
That said, as part of a mission-driven
non-profit, ACS Publications is more
closely aligned to our community
and understanding their needs. The
publishing ecosystem is more vibrant when all kinds of publishers
can thrive,” Tegen says.
But there is no denying that publishing, be it not-for-profit or commercial, is changing.
THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE
OF SCIENTIFIC PUBLISHING
Once we relied on print and a voyage into the stacks in the depths of
the University library to find past
research papers. Today we are very
much in a digital age, where information is obtained at the click of a button.
But while this might be a very obvious
way in which changes touch our lives
as scientists as well as away from the
bench, the publishing landscape has
been evolving in other ways too.
Open access articles are becoming
ever more prevalent among journals.
“Many funders and institutions are
now mandating that their researchers
publish open access or free to read.
ACS has long supported open access,
and we’re working to ensure that all
authors who wish to publish open
access can do so,” Tegen comments.
In Taylor’s mind, open access has
been the “most significant change” in
the publishing landscape over the last
decade or two: “This has been partly
as a result of the move from print to
digital, but also the increasingly held
view that research funded by the public purse should be freely available to
the public.”
Studies have estimated that as many
as 53.7% of scientific papers are now
published with some form of open
access, although these estimates vary
widely depending on the data source
used. While open access may be
good news for readers, the removal of
paywalls often comes at an increased
publishing cost to the scientists.
Some funding bodies, institutes or
organizations make money available
specifically for this purpose, however, concern has been raised that
this practice will make publishing
prohibitively expensive for scientists
in developing countries.
While the choice between open access or not may be one governed by
those holding the purse strings, there
are so many other factors to consider
when choosing who to publish with.
But are scientists properly prepared
for this decision-making process
during their education?
NAVIGATING THE PUBLISHING MINEFIELD
A journal paper often represents the
hard toils of months or even years,
so the decision of where to publish
is not one to be taken lightly. How
do you choose; impact factor, familiarity, or because that’s where your
colleagues and peers publish? There
are so many factors to consider, yet
this seems to be an area for which
scientists are woefully prepared.
There are plenty of courses available
for PhD students and early career
scientists around presentation skills
and writing your first paper and even
WHAT IS “IMPACT
FACTOR”?
First introduced by Eugene
Garfield, the impact factor
of a scientific journal is
a metric calculated by
Clarivate that reflects the
number of citations articles
published in that journal
have had over the previous
two years. While it is often
seen as a proxy of the
journal’s prestige, it has
been criticized as a flawed
measure as it does not
reflect important aspects
such as the quality of the
journal content or its peer
review process.
9
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becoming a reviewer, but what about
how to choose where to publish?
“The most important aspects of a
journal are how well it serves its
disciplinary community, whether
it is affordable and sustainable,
whether the research it publishes is
reliable and reproducible, whether it
conducts rigorous peer review etc.
These qualities can (and do) exist
in both for profit and not for profit
journals,” Taylor says.
“Scholars want to ensure their
research reaches the most appropriate audience in the highest quality journals, and selecting the right
journal can be overwhelming. ACS
Publications has a digital journal
selector to help authors find the best
journal as they consider factors such
as discipline and if they have funder
mandates. We also utilize a robust
manuscript transfer process within
our journals to get a paper to the best
home,” Tegen adds.
While transfer may be an option
between journals such as those
published by the ACS, this is often
not the case. It also doesn’t facilitate transfer between unrelated
publications, differing guidelines for
which can often mean a significant
overhaul of a manuscript. Therefore,
making informed choices in the first
instance is key.
This situation is not helped by the
pressures placed on many scientists
to keep manuscript output levels up
to satisfy targets or attract continued funding, the notorious “publish
or perish” paradigm. “Unfortunately, many authors are choosing to
publish in poorly run journals with
low editorial standards (so called
‘predatory journals’) because the
immense pressure they are under to
generate publications can lead them
to find the easiest/cheapest route
to publication,” says Taylor. “This
is primarily a problem generated
from within the research landscape
itself, i.e., the incessant reliance on
publication metrics such as impact
factors and h-indices. Unscrupulous
publishers may often take advantage
of this ‘publish or perish’ culture, but
it is not of their making.”
He continues, “The solution lies
within academia itself, which must
reform its entire process of research
evaluation (see DOR A and COAR A).
I applaud the ThinkCheckSubmit
initiative as one way of educating
researchers and helping them make
better choices.”
SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES
FOR A LACK OF SUPPORT?
The choices we make when it comes
to who we publish with can also have
much broader knock-on impacts
beyond our own CVs or funding opportunities. If journals fail to receive
enough support, which importantly
includes submissions, they risk becoming untenable and folding.
“There are many different measures
of ‘success’ in journals,” Taylor explains. “For some, this will be based
on citation metrics, for others this
may be more related to the reliability
of the articles, how open access the
journal is, whether it has an open
data policy, its profit margin, prestige, reach, downloads, availability
to researchers in poorer nations etc.
etc. The wide variety of journals
available today mean that some are
successful in some of these areas and
others in other areas.”
“Some of the world’s most prestigious, profitable and highly regarded
journals are published by learned
societies, others are published by
commercial entities,” he adds.
While the failure of a commercial
journal may mean one less publishing option and a reduction in
diversity, for society journals, the
ramifications are wider reaching.
Loss of a journal means loss of income, and thus reduced funds available to support society activities and
provide grants. Without subsidies,
conference costs for attendees are
likely to increase, making them less
accessible to the scientific community and reducing the opportunities
to meet and share ideas. Workshops
supported by societies, often also
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heavily subsidized, too would be impacted, limiting the training opportunities for young researchers. Some
researchers, as voiced during a recent
panel discussion at the Federation of
European Microbiological Societies
(FEMS) Congress 2023, also fear
that the loss of society journals could
mean increased publishing costs as a
consequence of reduced competition.
“Many academics see this [notfor-profit versus commercial] as
an important distinction, as they
would rather see any proceeds from
the journal go back into research,
rather than to shareholders. For
some researchers, this preference is
strong enough to mean they will only
publish in learned society journals
and some may refuse to cooperate
in any way with commercial journals (including peer reviewing for
them),” says Taylor. “However, most
researchers do not take such a hard
line and so (presumably) do not find
this distinction between commercial
and non-profit quite so important.
Indeed, in the sciences the journal
Nature is considered one of the most
(if not the most) sought after journals
to publish in. Yet Nature is a commercial journal. This suggests that most
researchers are more concerned with
other factors than whether a journal
is for profit or non-profit.”
ROOM FOR EVERYONE
While some journals on both sides
of the financial fence have struggled
and been forced to close, in some cases with the worrying loss of scholarly knowledge, it would appear others
are thriving. “Given the very long
history of the Royal Society’s journals (we started publishing in the
17th century) there have inevitably
been a great many new entrants (all
the other publishers in fact!). Some
have been commercial, and some
have been other learned societies.
Today, there are tens of thousands
of academic journals. Our journals
have continued to thrive over the
last three and a half centuries. At the
start of the 21st century, our article
submissions were only one fifth of
what they are today, and our publishing margins were very much lower,”
commented Taylor.
The publishing landscape for scientists is changing and there is now a
plethora of options available, whether
commercial or society-associated,
from which to choose. It is vital that
all are represented so that scientists
have a choice of where to publish, but
that choice needs to be an informed
one. Scientific societies are still as
relevant and important today as they
always have been. They create a community within which scientists can
belong, feel a part of and supported
by, and one way to facilitate the important work they do is by publishing
within society journals, at least some
of the time.
“The thought leadership in chemistry
that ACS provides is unparalleled,
and the scientific content that our
publications put out are driving real
advancements in the field. It is critical
to have a voice at the table who is
committed to the science and the scientist, and we are proud to play that
role,” Tegen concludes. ⚫
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Your Lack
of Sleep is
Hurting You
Suhanee Mitragotri
RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT
Around 1.5 billion people suffer from chronic pain worldwide,
which has been linked to a range of comorbidities, including
sleep disorders. A multi-institutional study led by Dr. Shiqian
Shen at Massachusetts General Hospital and published in Nature
Communications, demonstrated the mechanism by which sleep
disruption can lead to heightened pain sensitivity and therefore a
greater perception of pain.
iStock
12
Research
Spotlight
13
iStock
CHRONIC SLEEP
DISRUPTION AND
PAIN SENSITIVITY
Research has shown that chronic
sleep disruption (CSD) promotes pain,
also known as hyperalgesia, which
can commonly be experienced as
headaches or body pain after a night
of poor sleep. However, the mechanisms underlying this phenomenon
have been relatively unexplored. For
people with sleep disorders, CSD can
result in heightened pain perception
on a regular basis, which can impede
daily activities and routine, thereby
indicating the importance of gaining a
better understanding of the neural underpinnings that cause hyperalgesia in
people experiencing sleep disruptions.
Dr. Shen’s team hypothesized that
the thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN),
which has been implicated in arousal
and sleep spindle generation, may be
involved in CSD-induced hyperalgesia.
THE ROLE OF THE TRN,
VP AND NADA IN CSDINDUCED HYPERALGESIA
The researchers worked under a validated paradigm to induce sleep deprivation in C57/BL6 mice for five consecutive days. Group sizes for different
parts of the experiment ranged from 3
to 16 mice. They used metabolomics
to analyze the presence of metabolites
in different brain regions associated
with the TRN using LC-MS/MS techniques to improve understanding of
the metabolic changes associated
with sleep disruption. In order to test
for pain sensitivity, the researchers
measured the mechanical and thermal
withdrawal thresholds of the mice in
response to specific stimuli, including
heat. They also used fiber photometry
to study calcium signals associated
with neural activity, and they used viral
vectors and optogenetics to selectively
inhibit neurons.
The key findings of the paper
were:
• Inhibiting TRN neurons led to
decreased withdrawal thresholds, indicating an onset of
hyperalgesia, whereas activating
TRN neurons reduced CSD-induced hyperalgesia.
• Mice with CSD experienced
greater pain sensitivity after chemogenetic inhibition of neurons
in the ventrobasal complex of
the thalamus (VP) that received
inputs from the TRN.
• Mice in the CSD experimental
group showed lower levels
of N-arachidonoyl dopamine
(NADA) in the TRN compared
to control mice.
• In mice subjected to CSD,
administration of NADA resulted in reduced sensitivity to
pain, which was observed by
higher mechanical withdrawal
thresholds.
• NADA significantly reduced
heightened neural activity in
the VP, which was originally
caused by CSD.
ACTIVITY OF TRN AND
VP DUE TO CSD AND
DECREASED LEVELS
OF NADA
Although CSD has been shown to
promote pain sensitivity, the underlying mechanisms had not been fully
explored, until now. Shen’s team has
demonstrated that not only does
the TRN play a role in increasing
pain sensitivity with regards to sleep
deprivation, but it also projects to
other brain regions, such as the VP,
and those connections also play a role
in the development of hyperalgesia.
Increased activity of TRN and VP
neurons both led to an increase in
hyperalgesia in mice. Through their
study, they identified that CSD also
results in decreased levels of NADA,
which contributes to hyperalgesia, but
administration of NADA to mice that
were deprived of sleep resulted in a
reduced perception of pain.
Sleep deprivation can impact anyone,
but it particularly affects those with
sleep disorders, and this study has
shown that a lack of sleep can lead
to physiological changes that can
increase pain perception. By understanding this, it may become more
apparent to people why getting a good
night’s worth of sleep is important.
There is an underlying brain network,
involving both the TRN and the VP,
as well as neurotransmitters, such
as NADA, that provide proof of this.
Furthermore, the role of NADA in this
network suggests potential for its use
in developing therapeutics for heightened pain perception in individuals
with chronic sleep disturbance.
Further experimentation is required
to improve understanding of the role
of NADA, the TRN and VP in pain
sensitivity due to CSD. One limitation
is the narrow scope of this research,
as pain modulation has been shown
to involve other brain regions too.
There is therefore potential for other
regions to be involved in hyperalgesia
due to CSD as well. Furthermore, this
research was done in a mouse model
and CSD could demonstrate different
neuronal-level changes in the human
brain, so the results of this study
may not be directly applicable to human research.
DRUG DEVELOPMENT
INVOLVING NADA
The next step of this research would
be to explore NADA further to investigate the potential of developing
it into a therapy that could first be
tested in mice and then in clinical
trials. This research has provided insight on the mechanisms underlying
hyperalgesia due to CSD, but in order to use these results to generate a
clinical impact, it would be beneficial
to consider how this research could
inform drug development. ⚫
Reference
1. Ding W, Yang L, Shi E, et al. The endocannabinoid N-arachidonoyl dopamine is critical
for hyperalgesia induced by chronic sleep
disruption [published correction appears
in Nat Commun. 2023 13;14(1):7342]. Nat
Commun. 2023;14(1):6696. doi:10.1038/
s41467-023-42283-6
RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT 13
The Next Chapter of The Next Chapter of
iStock modified
Molly Campbell
T
he end of a year presents an
opportunity to reflect on the
past and look forward to the potential of the future. Our world
is shaped by scientific progress and
to mark the end of 2023, we’re looking
to the future of life science research.
In the following interviews, you’ll
hear from renowned academic
experts offering their take on the
“fields to watch” as we transition into
2024. Join us as we explore how innovation, ethics and even aesthetics
look set to influence the landscape
of life science research, creating new
possibilities for treating human diseases, feeding our growing population and nurturing the scientists of
the future.
iStock, Dr. Xingxing Zang
Dr. Xingxing Zang is a professor and
the Louis Goldstein Swan Chair at
Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
Zang’s laboratory focuses on the
fundamental biology of new immune
checkpoints and the development of
translational immunotherapies in
cancers, autoimmune diseases and
metabolic diseases.
Zang highlights chimeric antigen
receptor (CAR)-immune cell therapy, particularly CAR T therapy, as a
major advancing field due to its “remarkable potential to revolutionize
cancer treatment”.
“CA R T-cell therapy involves modifying a patient's own immune cells
to target and destroy cancer cells,
offering a personalized and potentially more effective treatment
option for certain blood cancers
like leukemia and lymphoma,” explains Zang.
“CA R T-therapy's success stories,
where patients previously deemed
untreatable have experienced remission, showcase its immense
promise,” says Zang. “Its ability to
provide durable responses in some
cases has sparked significant interest among researchers, clinicians
and patients alike.”
The success of CD19-targeted CA R
T cells in treating B-cell malignancies, including acute lymphoblastic
leukemia (A LL) and other types of
lymphoma, has been extensively
documented, says Zang: “Studies
like the work of Dr. Carl June
and colleagues published in the
New England Journal of Medicine,
demonstrated impressive results in
relapsed/refractory A LL patients
using CD19 CAR T therapy.”
“A nother study demonstrated that
CD19 CA R T therapy achieved an
estimated 5-year overall survival
rate in 42.6% of patients with
refractory large B-cell lymphoma
(LBCL),” Zang adds. LBCL refers to
subtypes of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) that are particularly aggressive and have a high unmet need
due to limited treatment options.
A number of technologies and
research methods are helping to
generate better CAR therapies, including gene editing techniques:
“CRISPR /Cas9 and other gene-editing tools have revolutionized CAR
T-cell therapy by enabling precise
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) immune-cell therapy
Dr. Xingxing Zang.
The first CAR T-cell
treatment, Kymriah
(tisagenlecleucel), was
approved for use in children
and young adults with B-cell
leukemia by the US Food
and Drug Administration
(FDA) in 2017.
15
Dr. Kathleen Hefferon is a lecturer in
microbiology in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell
University.
Plant molecular farming (PMF) is
an emerging area of plant biotechnology. It combines disciplines such
as plant agriculture and synthetic
biology to enable the production of
animal proteins in plants. “The science is based on growing the animal
proteins themselves in plants, greenhouses or vertical farms,” explains
Hefferon.
PMF typically involves introducing
genes that encode specific proteins
into a plant’s genome. The transgenic
plant can then operate as a “factory”
producing the target protein, which
can then be extracted to obtain a
final product.
“The alternative food protein space is
geared toward finding ways to feed
a growing population nutritious
protein in a sustainable manner,
and with animal welfare in mind,”
Hefferon describes. “Using plants
modifications in T cells. These tools
facilitate targeted gene insertion,
deletion or modification to enhance
CAR T-cell efficacy, persistence and
safety,” says Zang.
As CAR T cells are “living” medications, their production differs from
the manufacturing of chemicals
and proteins. “Streamlining and
optimizing CA R T-cell manufacturing processes are critical,” Zang
says, emphasizing that automation,
closed systems and improved
cell expansion technologies are
contributing to scalable and standardized production of high-quality
CAR T cells.
In the future, Zang believes that
this type of therapy may hold promise for other diseases beyond cancer,
including autoimmune diseases
and neurodegeneration. “The principle behind using CA R T cells in
autoimmunity involves redirecting
these cells to target and suppress
the immune cells responsible for
the autoimmune response. CA R
such as CA R-macrophages may be
used to treat A lzheimer’s disease
by removing amyloid plaques or tau
tangles in the brain,” he says.
iStock, Dr. Kathleen Hefferon
Plant molecular farming
Dr. Kathleen Hefferon.
The Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United
Nations estimates that
the global demand for
meat will reach 455
million metric tonnes by
2050, a 76% increase
from 2005. PMF’s use in
the food industry is in its
early stages, but there
are several industry
partnerships exploring its
use to overcome issues in
meat consumption such as
sustainability.
16
17
iStock. Dr. Amy Reichelt
to produce these proteins seems
a very fitting way to go. This is a
solution based on synthetic biology
that will decrease arable land usage
and can be employed even within
urban centers.”
Beyond food production, plant molecular farming has had success in
the pharmaceutical industry, where
plants can be used as biofactories
to produce antibodies and antigens.
“One noteworthy milestone has been
the production of flu and COVID
vaccines,” explains Hefferon. “These
vaccines are efficacious, inexpensive
and can be stored at room temperature for prolonged periods of time.
Perfect for low- to middle-income
countries.”
As for technologies and techniques
that are progressing in this field, Hefferon says there is “a lot of work going
on”, from increasing expression of
proteins in plants, advancing protein
purification methods and improving
vertical farming infrastructure.
The core challenge faced by PMF is
the ability to scale up – a common
issue for new technologies. “There
are regulatory hurdles involved in
protein production,” says Hefferon.
“The regulatory process is uneven
across the globe, which can be cumbersome, but appears to be slowly
opening up to new technologies such
as genome editing.”
Dr. Amy Reichelt is a senior lecturer and adjunct professor at the
University of Adelaide. She is a recognized leader in neuroscience and
neuropharmacology, specializing in
psychedelic clinical development,
neurodegeneration and nutritional
neurobiology.
Reichelt believes that the technological advancement of psychedelic
and psychedelic-inspired drugs for
the treatment of psychiatric and
neurological conditions is a majorly
advancing field. Particularly, she
is impressed by the development
of novel molecules that have the
therapeutic benefits of classical
psychedelics, but improved safety
and therapeutic profiles.
Reichelt explains that pharmaceutical development of novel therapeutics for mental health conditions
came to a “standstill” once selective
serotonin receptor inhibitors, or SSR Is, hit the market over 20 years ago.
“Neuroscience research into new
therapeutic mechanisms has been
underfunded. The resurgence of interest into psychedelic therapies has
come at a time of dire need for new
and effective treatments,” she adds.
Many countries regulate psychedelic drugs as controlled substances,
enforcing restrictions on their use.
Accessing psychedelic compounds
Psychedelic and psychedelic-inspired drugs
Dr. Amy Reichelt.
and gaining approval to study them
in a research setting has proven
challenging for scientists, but not
impossible.
“The work from lab groups led by individuals including Dr. David Olson,
associate professor of chemistry,
biochemistry and molecular medicine at the University of California,
Davis, Dr. Charles Nichols, professor of pharmacology at LSU Health
Sciences Centre in New Orleans and
Dr. Alex Kwan, associate professor
in the Meinig School of Biomedical
Engineering at Cornell University,
continue to break new ground in
understanding the mechanistic basis of how psychedelic drugs work,”
Reichelt says.
Reichelt is excited by research that
demonstrates the neuroplasticity-enhancing capabilities of some psychedelic compounds, and their effects
on inflammatory cascades in cellular
models. This is important work, she
says, considering the inflammatory
component of some psychiatric and
neurological conditions, which can
impact neuroplasticity. “Moreover,
the recent research published from
Dr. Gul Dölen’s lab that showed how
different psychedelics reopened
windows of social learning in mice for
varying durations is a seminal observation for understanding therapeutic
effects,” Reichelt adds.
Which technologies are enhancing
the field of psychedelics research?
For Reichelt, advances in the use
of two-photon imaging of neuronal
structures in a live animal’s brain is an
obvious first choice: “This has allowed
a tangible understanding of how key
cellular structures are modified by
psychedelic drugs – and the potential
durability of these effects.”
Research into the therapeutic potential of psychedelic compounds has experienced somewhat of a “renaissance”,
but many challenges remain before
we are likely to see widespread use of
such drugs in the clinic. Working with
scheduled drugs requires “traversing
a lot of roadblocks and bureaucracy,”
Reichelt says. She hopes to see easier
pathways to running both scientific
and clinical trials with these drugs.
While public attitudes are shifting
towards a more supportive outlook on
psychedelic therapies, integrating such
drugs into the healthcare system will
not be an easy feat, Reichelt emphasizes: “Hopefully insurance payers and
healthcare providers see the benefits
to society. Because psychedelic treatments require clinicians to be present
for safety for the duration of the acute
drug effects (potentially eight hours or
more), the scalability and cost is something that must be considered.”
“In addition, psychedelic drugs are not
a panacea and greater understanding
of their biological effects are still
needed to effectively apply them clinically to treat mental and neurological
health conditions.”
REICHELT HIGHLIGHTS THE FOLLOWING PAPERS FROM
THE AFOREMENTIONED LABS:
• Psychedelics promote neuroplasticity through the activation of
intracellular 5-HT2A receptors
• Structure–activity relationship analysis of psychedelics in a rat
model of asthma reveals the anti-inflammatory pharmacophore
• Psilocybin induces rapid and persistent growth of dendritic spines
in frontal cortex in vivo
“Understanding more about
the windows of plasticity
that are opened or promoted
by psychedelics enables
targeted therapy protocols to
be initiated in the period of
time when the brain is most
receptive to interventions,”
says Reichelt.
18
19
iStock. Tsutomu Sawai
Dr. Tsutomu Sawai is an associate
professor in the graduate school
of humanities and social sciences
at Hiroshima University. His research interests surround practical
ethics issues concerning new and
emerging technologies, such as the
application of genome and epigenome editing.
“Science and technology are surging
forward, unlocking new possibilities for the present and future. Yet,
the boundaries of research and
technological innovation remain
unclear, including who should define them,” Sawai says. He recently
co-authored a forum piece in Stem
Cell Reports discussing the ethical
issues of epigenome editing.
Epigenetic compounds “mark”
the genome, but they do not alter
the underlying DNA sequence.
Epigenome editing is therefore
viewed as an attractive approach
to modifying gene function, as it is
considered reversible and carries
a reduced risk of off-target effects.
“Epigenome editing stands at the
frontier of biotechnology, offering a
tunable approach to gene regulation
without altering the DNA sequence
itself. Its reversible nature positions it as a promising candidate for
treating a spectrum of genetic and
chronic conditions,” Sawai explains.
He adds, “As medical applications
of epigenome editing emerge, we
are passionate about illuminating
critical yet overlooked ethical
considerations.” This includes the
potential impact that transgenerational epigenetic inheritance – or
TEI – could have on the future of
epigenetic-based therapies, which
are currently in development.
A paper published by Takashi et al in
early 2023 found that even “advantageous” epigenome editing could have
far-reaching consequences for subsequent generations. “This potential to
influence our progeny necessitates a
broader ethical reflection, extending
beyond the immediate safety and efficacy of its medical use,” says Sawai.
“With this in mind, our discourse
Ethical issues surrounding new approaches to
gene editing
Tsutomu Sawai.
TEI is a phenomenon whereby epigenetic changes – induced by internal or external factors – are passed from one generation to the next.
While its existence has been demonstrated in some laboratory models,
whether it occurs in mammals is not clear. It is, as Sawai describes,
“a hotbed of debate in human genome editing ethics and regulation.”
20
iStock, The Catholic University of America.
cautions against undue optimism
regarding the ethical and regulatory
landscape of epigenome editing,
especially concerning its transgenerational inheritance.”
What steps must be taken to decide
how technologies such as epigenome
editing are developed or authorized
for human application? “Our first
step is to rigorously establish when
and how epigenome editing may affect future generations,” says Sawai.
“We must then weigh the significance
of this heritability in human applications. Should the hereditary impact
of these interventions be deemed
ethically and regulatorily negligible,
it could shake the foundations of the
current opposition to human germline genome editing, which is tightly
controlled for this very reason.”
We currently find ourselves at a
crossroads, Sawai concludes, tasked
with aligning the ethics and regulations of epigenome editing with
those established for human genome
editing while “striving for consistency and foresight.”
Dr. Brandon Vaidyanathan is an associate professor and chair of the department of sociology and director of
the Institutional Flourishing Lab at
The Catholic University of America.
Here, his current research examines
the role of “beauty” in science.
Beauty is a term that isn’t often
associated with scientific research.
Consequently, you may be unfamiliar with this research area. As
Vaidyanathan explains, it’s fairly
novel: “There isn’t a term in place
for this field yet, but I might call it
‘aesthetics in science’.”
“There is a very recent and growing
body of work in philosophy and sociology that looks at how aesthetic
factors (e.g., beauty, awe, wonder
and other aesthetic emotions) shape
scientists and the practice of science,” he says.
There is no “future” in science without scientists. Vaidyanathan leads
Work and Well-Being in Science, the
largest cross-national study investigating factors that affect the wellbeing of scientists. It is also the first
international study to examine the
role of aesthetics in science, surveying ~3500 scientists, and interviewing a further 215 in person. “I was
The role of beauty in science
Dr. Brandon Vaidyanathan.
The Work and Well-Being in
Science project published
its results in the journal
Frontiers in Psychology in
2022. A perspective piece,
written by Vaidyanathan
et al., is available in the
Journal of Biosciences.
21
drawn to research this area because,
in qualitative research interviews
with scientists for a previous project,
our team was surprised to hear them
regularly bring up ‘beauty’ as a key
motivating factor,” he explains.
Vaidyanathan’s team found that
most scientists view their work as
an aesthetic quest – the “beauty
of understanding”, a pleasure that
derives from discovering the hidden
or inner logic underlying what they
are studying. “One key insight is that
aesthetic factors are a major source
of motivation for scientists to pursue
their careers in the first place. We also
find that aesthetic experience is very
strongly associated with well-being
among scientists,” Vaidyanathan says.
“This is especially important in light
of considerable research pointing
to a mental health crisis in science.
Our work underscores the need to
preserve the intrinsic motivations and
joys of doing science and address the
obstacles to it (such as institutional
pressures and toxic leadership) that
scientists face.”
Vaidyanathan says more experimental
and even neuropsychological work
could also benefit this field, helping
us to understand how aesthetic
experiences affect scientists and
their relevance to scientific practice.
The methodology behind this type
of data collection can prove challenging, though. “It is increasingly
difficult to get a high response rate
for surveys – even within financial
incentives in place, most people
don’t want to take a survey, and mail
servers often filter out survey invitations as spam. It is also difficult to get
scientists to participate in research,”
Vaidyanathan expresses.
He notes that, beside the Work
and Well-Being in Science project,
other publications, including work
by Cambridge philosopher Milena
Ivanova highlights the importance of
aesthetics in scientific experiments.
“Prominent scientists such as Nobel
Prize winner Frank Wilczek and Oxford biologist Richard Dawkins have
also written books about aesthetics in
science,” Vaidyanathan concludes.
THAT’S A WRAP
As described by our expert interviewees, the future of science is
one marked by the need for collaboration, ethical considerations and
communication within the scientific
community and with the public
– particularly as technologies continue to evolve. The integration of fields
such as biology, computer science
and engineering will no doubt foster
innovative solutions to the global
challenges we face. But we must not
overlook the role of scientists in science, a pertinent issue considering
the pressures researchers face such
as limited funding, resources and the
pressure of “publish or perish”.
We’ve heard from the experts, and
now we want to hear your take on
the future of science. What field of
research looks set to majorly impact
science and society? What are the
core challenges that scientists are
facing, and how can we work to overcome them? What are your hopes for
the future of academia?
Get in touch with the Technology
Networks editorial team to share
your thoughts. ⚫
iStock
“I find beauty in [the] elegance and
simplicity of experimental design. The
fewer moving parts and parameters
an experiment can involve while still
attacking a particular problem or
being able to shed light on a particular
question in a very specific way, I find
that extremely beautiful…Maybe it’s
sort of an intellectual elegance, like a
mathematical proof. So, I love that,” a
respondent to the Work and Well-Being
in Science survey said.
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iStock
MY GREEN LAB'S NEW REPORT
PROVIDES AN OVERVIEW OF
THE INDUSTRY’S CARBON
FOOTPRINT AND IDENTIFIES KEY
OPPORTUNITIES FOR CHANGE.
T
he biotech and pharma industry
has a significant carbon footprint – with total carbon emissions of 193 million tCO2-e
in 2022. The sector is also rapidly
growing, with an expected compound
annual growth rate (CAGR) for the
global biotech market of 13.9% from
2023 to 2030. Together, this makes
improving our understanding of the
industry’s impact on climate change
and working to reduce its carbon
emissions crucial to ensure global
warming is limited to the 1.5 °C target
set by the Paris Agreement.
Using data provided by Intercontinental Exchange, My Green Lab – a
non-profit organization that aims to
build a global culture of sustainability
in science – has produced a report
providing key insights into the current
state of the sector’s carbon emissions.
As an update to My Green Lab’s 2021
study, the report The Carbon Impact of
Biotech and Pharma: Collective Action
Accelerating Progress to the UN Race
to Zero is based on data from 226
publicly listed companies and 147
privately held companies.
“What this report does is it quantifies
the total carbon impact of the industry, looking across all three scopes,
so both up and down the value chain,
as well as the emissions controlled
by the companies themselves,” James
Connelly, CEO of My Green Lab told
Technology Networks. The environmental impact of scientific research
has historically been somewhat ignored due to the importance attributed
to advances in areas such as medical
treatments and technical innovations
Connelly explained, but the report
provides an overview of the industry’s
carbon footprint and identifies key
opportunities for change.
PROGRESS SEEN, BUT IT’S
NOT UNIVERSAL
Encouragingly, the report found that
the largest companies by revenue
are making progress, with the top
25 companies reducing their annual
Scope 1 and 2 emissions by an averBiotech and Pharma’s Carbon
Impact: Insights From My Green Lab
ANNA MACDONALD
iStock
24
age of 5.31% per year since 2015, and
the top 15 by 8.06%.
However, progress has not been universal. “Unfortunately, while the top
companies are driving reductions,
particularly in the past year, if you
look at the broader industry as a
whole, we're actually seeing carbon
intensity increase,” Connelly added.
The report also found a strong correlation between region and carbon
intensit. “One thing that was very
interesting in the data was the carbon impact of companies based in
Asia-Pacific tend to be about twice
as high for Scope 1 and 2, compared
to companies based in Europe or
North America,” Connelly said. The
report authors note that this may be
attributed to greater outsourcing of
manufacturing by North American
and European companies.
Only 10% of the 91 public companies
studied in the report were found to
have targets validated by the Science
Based Targets Initiative (SBTI) to
be aligned with a 1.5 °C world. “The
Science Based Targets Initiative is a
global initiative to help bring some
rigor and accountability when a company says they're going to be net zero
carbon,” Connelly explained. A company’s emission reduction target is
evaluated to determine if it is aligned
to a 1.5, 2 or 3 °C world.
Despite the seemingly low percentage, Connelly noted that “10% is
actually pretty good when you look
across all of our global industries.”
He was optimistic that this figure will
increase as more corporate sustainability teams hold their suppliers accountable to an SBTI-aligned target.
Some of the largest companies have
begun working together through the
Sustainable Markets Initiative to set
a standard for suppliers.
The interconnected global supply
chain shared by biotech and pharma
presents great opportunities for
collective action Connelly explained:
“When they act together, and in fact,
only if they act together, are they
able to influence their suppliers and
create the change necessary at scale,
to get the whole industry to drive
towards net zero by 2050, or sooner.”
MORE COMPANIES ADOPTING
ZERO CARBON TARGETS
On a positive note, the number of
biotech and pharma companies that
have joined the UN Race to Zero has
increased from 30 to 35 since last
year, now accounting for 53% of the
sector by revenue. The report highlights that this is beaten only by the
financial services, consumer goods,
fashion, and information and communication technology sectors.
Importantly, 63% of pharma and med
tech companies in the campaign have
started a green lab program, nearly half
of which have achieved the My Green
Lab Certification at a global scale.
“My Green Lab Certification is a tool
to take high-level organizational goals
and turn them into practical action
on the ground in an area of research
that's often left behind because the
idea is you can't do something about
it,” Connelly said.
It is an “important way to align overall
corporate values with what's happening at the lab,” and can help the
people within a company to feel
involved in their sustainability initiatives he added.
This certification was selected as a
key indicator of progress for the UNFCCC High-Level Climate Champions’
“We're starting to decouple
growth of the biotech and
pharmaceutical industry from
increased carbon output, so that
overall trend is really exciting,”
Connelly said.
SCOPE 1 EMISSIONS direct emissions from owned or controlled
sources, such as a natural gas boiler burning fuel onsite.
SCOPE 2 EMISSIONS indirect carbon emissions from purchased
energy consumed by the reporting company, such as electricity.
SCOPE 3 EMISSIONS all other indirect emissions upstream or
downstream in a company’s value chain. For example, upstream could
include the materials required to make a vaccine, while downstream
would include the energy used to store and dispose of the vaccine.
25
2030 Breakthroughs in 2021, with a
goal that 95% of biotech and pharma
labs have to be certified at the highest
level by 2030.
As part of efforts to scale up the
number of companies on the pathway
to achieving Certification, My Green
Lab has recently announced a collaborative supply chain initiative with the
largest pharma companies. Through
collective action, the Converge initiative will incentivize and ultimately
request CROs, CDMOs and CMOs
within the supply chain to pursue My
Green Lab Certification.
The report found Scope 3 emissions
were almost five times larger than
Scope 1 and 2 combined, and with
purchased goods and services accounting for the majority of these
Scope 3 emissions, improving supply
chains can make a big impact on
the industry’s carbon footprint. In
addition to Converge, several other
collective initiatives have been developed to address Scope 3 emissions,
including Energize, which aims to accelerate renewable energy adoption,
and Activate, a program to gather data
on active pharmaceutical ingredient
manufacturers.
CONTINUED NEED FOR
CHANGE
The improvements noted in the report
are positive signs that the biotech
and pharma industry is committed
to reducing its carbon footprint, but
further change is needed to achieve
the Paris Agreement target. Key areas
of focus highlighted by the authors are
the need for more accurate reporting
and practical action plans for reducing
carbon emissions.
“We have to move at this point beyond
commitments to real action. And what
that takes to go from commitments
to real action is the establishment of
good baselines from which to measure
from,” Connelly said.
Scope 3 data is calculated using a
lot of assumptions, which can make
it hard to establish baselines and
subsequently measure the impact of
changes Connelly noted.
However, the authors remain optimistic that the industry is well-equipped
to take on this challenge and act as a
model for other industry sectors to
achieve net zero carbon. Tools like
My Green Lab Certification can play
a key role in helping to put organizational-level carbon goals into action.
“It's time, not only to set big goals,
but we’ve got to get to work and
make them happen on the ground,”
concluded Connelly. ⚫
MY GREEN LAB CERTIFICATION is the global gold standard
for laboratory sustainability best practices, providing scientists with
actionable ways to make meaningful change. Over 2,000 labs in a range
of sectors have been supported by the program which covers fourteen
topics related to energy, water, waste, chemistry/materials
and engagement.
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iStock
Martin Farley, sustainable
research adviser at UCL
and director of Green
Lab Associates, is an expert in lab sustainability. He started
a career in research, however his
personal and professional interest
in sustainability led him to take an
alternate career path focused on
making labs more sustainable. He
established the consultancy Green
Lab Associates to help researchers
to reduce the energy and resources
they use in their workspace. He also
consults various institutions, helping them develop greener practices.
Farley was invited to Technology Networks’ Ask Me Anything session to
answer your questions about the
future of sustainability in research
and laboratory practices.
Lucy Lawrence (LL): Is it ever
possible for a lab to be 100%
sustainable since there is so
much plastic waste?
Martin Farley (MF): We don’t know
how to do net-zero science yet – we
don’t know how to achieve net zero
for most things yet – but we do know
how to vastly mitigate the impacts.
I think that’s the way to look at it:
while we don’t have all the immediate
solutions, we have a lot of immediate
actions we can take.
I don’t think science inherently will
ever be absolutely net zero, but that’s
not to say that we should stop doing it.
Maybe it will be one day, a lot of it depends on our energy sources and the
energy mix, and there is a lot we know
we can do now.
LL: What would your dream
green lab look like?
MF: A dream of mine is to fully understand the carbon impacts of
the different processes we do – to
understand where the hotspots are
for when we want to take action
around sustainable labs. The dream
Integrating Sustainability Into the
Lab With Martin Farley
LUCY FELL & LUCY LAWRENCE
28
Technology Networks, adapted from Lab Sustainability.
green lab would involve suppliers
having full transparency on the
manufacturing impact of what they
produce for us, being motivated not
just to sell us single-use products
but also to take part in addressing
the sustainability impacts of some of
their processes without damaging the
research or clinical outcome.
It would also involve a full integration
of sustainable practices and targets.
When learning at the university level,
somebody would teach you that your
freezer uses as much energy as a house,
or that your fume cupboard uses as
much as two to three houses or that
there is an impact from the gases that
you're using.
Because, at the end of the day, the
folks that are going to be working in
these labs are the ones best placed
to know where they can mitigate and
find wins around sustainability without compromising the research.
It would also mean integrating standards, it would mean suppliers are
fully invested, and that there's a level
of transparency and awareness that's
commonplace, similar to what we’ve
done with safety in the lab.
LL: Could you explain what
the lab efficiency assessment
framework (LEAF) is?
MF: The best analogy is that if you
want to make your lab safe, you use a
health and safety standard. You don’t
start from square one, you have a standard that’s set and gives you actions
and targets to adhere to. And that was
the idea behind LEAF – to give people
a standard approach to sustainability
to make it more accessible. Laboratories that sign up are given sustainability actions to work through and, depending on the criteria that they meet,
they are certified with a bronze, silver
or gold award. There are also calculators within the tool that allow people
to estimate some of their carbon and
financial impacts.
LEAF is intended to mimic what
we’ve seen with gender equality in
science. It was mandated that if you
wanted to get funding, you had to
achieve a certain level within the Athena SWAN framework to make these
changes happen quickly. It was great
that gender equality wasn’t made voluntary, and I would argue that that’s
something that we need with sustainability now.
LL: What steps can a lab take
to properly manage e-waste
generated from old equipment?
MF: There's planned obsolescence
by a lot of the large companies that
provide equipment. But, if your IT
department will allow it, there are
third party providers that will take
over contracts and warranties to
extend their lifetime. If a piece of
equipment needs to go out the door,
then I would recommend looking
at third parties who can take the
equipment and pass it on. In the UK ,
for example, there's providers such
as UniGreenScheme.
LL: Are green labs more expensive to run?
MF: This is a common feeling and
concept, I would disagree with it,
but it depends. One of the challenges to sustainability is our financial systems. Currently, our pots of
money are all spread in ways that
work for accountants but don't work
for sustainability.
Let's take the reuse of consumables
as an example. Somebody's going to
A lot of lab consumables and reagents are shipped shrouded in
packaging. While cardboard boxes are widely recycled, packages
often include hard-to-recycle polystyrene chips to keep them safe or
insulative polystyrene boxes to maintain their temperature.
PACKAGING
Insulative boxes can be reused repeatedly in the lab for
keeping samples and reagents on ice or for shipping
samples on to other labs.
IT IS ESTIMATED
THAT, ONCE
IN LANDFILL,
POLYSTYRENE
PACKING MAY
PERSIST FOR 500
YEARS OR MORE
BEFORE BREAKING
DOWN!
While polystyrene is not taken by many mainstream
recycling centers, collections by specialist recycling
facilities can be arranged in some areas. They may
then be upcycled into other products or purposes.
Figure 1: Reusing and recycling polystyrene packaging.
29
have to pay for somebody's time to
go and wash them, and you might see
energy consumption go up. However,
in a university, that energy consumption is paid by a separate department
than the ones that pay for the technician and the consumables, so that
removes some of the incentive. We
assessed the costs of reusing consumables. We showed that, overall,
the cost of reuse was comparable to
single use, if not less, depending on
the consumable. The issue is how to
incentivize it. Labs often don't pay
for energy, so why should they pay
for a piece of equipment or take more
time out of their very busy lives to
do something that will save energy if
they don't see that incentive?
If we were to remove some of these
financial barriers, we would see that
sustainability in labs is actually
about using equipment for a longer
lifespan.
You can't buy your way to sustainability, so it's about reusing or repairing things more, which overall
should save money.
It's also about sharing resources and
making more data more accessible. If
we were to invest in better sharing of
data systems, it's an upfront cost, but
we get more out of the data in the long
term. For example, the brain banks
across the UK use a common sample
management system, which means
that they're all aware of each other’s
samples. It is a wonderful model but,
currently, we haven't put the incentives in the right place to invest in
these systems.
Another example I want to give is
the grant system. If you win a grant,
there's a limited time when you can
spend it. If you don't spend it by the
end of the year, the accountants or
department leads might take it back.
Why haven't we figured out a system
to incentivize underspend on grants?
There are a few wider systems that
make it tough right now.
Financially, I would argue that overall, if we're sharing our resources
appropriately, sustainable science
would be so much cheaper. There
are a lot of examples, but it requires
looking at the system as a whole,
which is sometimes challenging on
an individual basis with the way financial systems are set up.
LL: What if we were to overlook
sustainability in the lab entirely?
MF: Science is growing exponentially, at a much faster rate than
the global GDP. There’s the largest number of scientists we’ve ever
had, so the impact of it is growing
exponentially as well. We have to
take part.
Most of the carbon impact we have
is through the consumption of materials, and it's a whole chain: the
embodied carbon of where the material comes from, the shipping, the
manufacturing, the consumption,
the usage. I wouldn't say that we can
just ignore it.
We want to do more science that
helps us understand how to address
climate change, but not all science
is equal. A lot of science enables climate change and enables consumption, so consider the type of science
you do long term. Science is a tool,
but it's as good of a tool as we make
it. It can help us address climate
change, or it can enable it as well. ⚫
Martin Farley was speaking to Lucy
Lawrence, Senior Digital Content Producer for Technology Networks
We are delighted
to present our
esteemed virtual
speaker, Martin
Farley, Sustainable
Research Adviser
at UCL and Director
of Green Lab
Associates.
SUSTAINABILITY
IN THE LAB
ANYTHING:
WATCH ON
DEMAND NOW
"You can't buy
your way to
sustainability, so
it's about reusing
or repairing things
more, which overall
should save money."
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Vaccine
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Lost Women
of Science
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Paradox Causes
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for Millions of People
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Highlights the Need
for Smarter, FutureProof Vaccine Design
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ofGlobal,
Sustainable and
Cooperative
Open Science
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Biodegradation of
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the Marine Habitat
A Step Closer to
Orally-Delivered
Insulin for Diabetes
ThreePsychologyHistory, Mystery
and DNA Analysis
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Higher Education
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Turning On the
Vaccine Tap
All
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Great and
Small
Pio cae publicae, ad rem deffre, cre
meripie ntimus se nossoltum inclutum
esulabe mnihil te nos vatudes, unter
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