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With recent developments in Haematopoietic Stem Cell research becoming a rapidly expanding new technology in many medical laboratories across the world, clean room technology is becoming a more and more lucrative field for those of us in the industry. The construction of these new clean room laboratories can present many challenges, most notably in the area of pharmaceutical science and biotechnology, in which clean rooms have been playing an instrumental role for years. Implementation of new clean room suite technology is constantly in high demand from researchers all over the world, and a recent article from PharmTech.com sheds some light on how recent developments in this technological avenue have affected European markets, most notably in the area of HEPA filtration systems:
“The HEPA filtration system in pharmaceutical clean rooms presents some distinct challenges. A terminal filtration system, in which ducts connect the individual HEPA filters to the air handling system, is the most common choice for Class 1000-100000 clean rooms. It is critical that the ducting does not contain any acoustic lining that could harbor microbial growth. In situations where a plenum configuration is selected, the sealing technique becomes a critical consideration. The gel sealant, popular in other applications – such as animal research and the production of medical devices – since the 1960s, has been less enthusiastically received by the pharmaceutical industry because the U-channels constructed to seat the filter units make sanitizing difficult.”
High efficiency particulate air systems are a large staple of the field of clean room technology, and new developments in sanitization will most likely revolutionize the field in the coming years. As the transportation of human cell tissue for transplantation or genetic observation becomes a more common application for medical facilities, it is likely that clean rooms will become a larger part of most institutions’ budgets.
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