Reconciling the environmental impact of biological research can be difficult. Often, precise methods are required to ensure the integrity of results, but this comes with a trade-off of plastic use. Research can ultimately be of great value to our understanding and protection of the natural world, so improving the sustainability of lab practices is an important priority.
New research by Laura Guillardín and Professor John Mackay has found a more sustainable way of isolating DNA, which is a key research step for many researchers across a variety of disciplines. They tested two methods while conducting studies on three species of conifer trees: QIAGEN, a commonly used method, and MicroGEM, a rapid, plastic-efficient method.
They discovered that MicroGEM had a 52.64% lower plastic footprint. If the method was used to process 1225 samples from a larger project, they would have avoided 8.1kg of plastic, equivalent to 27.44kg of CO2 emissions – around the emissions of a petrol car on a 70-mile journey. This method was also 51.8% faster, needing only 14.7 days of work to isolate the samples in contrast to 25.9 days using QIAGEN, and had similar quality results in sufficient quantity for most further analyses. Overall, this makes it a reliable and environmentally preferable choice. Laura said:
"Our study highlights the possibility of finding reliable methods that could reduce the use of plastic in molecular labs without compromising the experiment's quality. Reducing the carbon footprint is vital to combat climate change and its far-reaching consequences; to do so, a shift toward more sustainable methods is key."
There has been a trend in genetic and genomic studies towards an increase in sample sizes and investigation of a wider range of species. This has impacted the time and difficulty of isolating nucleic acids (DNA or RNA), as well as increasing the cost of sequencing and environmental impacts due to plastic waste. Additionally, in 2022, lab materials were identified as one of the University of Oxford’s main environmental impacts due to their production and distribution.
This study provides an actionable way to move towards a more sustainable and responsible lab environment, alongside improving efficiency while maintaining quality of research.
To read more about this research, published in Plant Methods, visit: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13007-023-01086-y
