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This is the last post in a blog series on sustainable practices in the lab, where I’ll list some easy but effective habits you can incorporate to reduce your lab consumption and increase your lab sustainability. For my other posts on lab sustainability, check out my Recycling and Innovations posts.

Making small changes in your daily habits can feel ineffective or unimportant. With so many big contributors to the sustainability problem, how can one little change make a difference? Individual changes to our behavior can lead to cultural shifts that can have bigger impacts. For example, if you joined an office where everyone used a mug or reusable water bottle, you’d probably bring in a mug or reusable water bottle instead of buying yourself a big stack of plastic cups. By initiating little changes in ourselves, we can both influence others to change their behavior and we become more aware of our own consumption.

Addgene recently moved to our brand new location, with more space to grow and help scientists share resources in new ways. Along with a new location comes the need for new conference room names. The Addgenie’s favorite conference room naming scheme? Gene names! This is not surprising for Addgene. But the names we chose were not just any gene names. Now, we have meetings in rooms such as Groucho, Sonic Hedgehog, Sleeping Beauty, Cookie Monster, Spaghetti Squash, Tinman, and Bagpipe.

How does a gene get its name? Often times, a gene gets its name based on what happens to an organism when a gene/protein is depleted in a knockout experiment. Certain scientific communities have a little more leeway in what they can name a gene and many of the interesting ones come from the fly community. Not surprising, this is where most of our conference room names originated from.

Let’s take a look at some of the stories behind the names. We also have many plasmids in our repository that you can use to study these genes!

New ideas and approaches are encouraged in science. It isn’t surprising that new ideas are also popping up in how we manage lab waste. This is the second in a series of posts on bringing sustainable practices in the lab. The first post focused on streaming some lab waste for recycling- a process that’s integrated into waste management in our day-to-day lives, but not as well-integrated into our lab lives.

Read on to learn about some creative approaches to lab sustainability, and find ways to further reduce our consumption beyond recycling.

We’re excited to welcome Karen Katz, Esq and Carl Paratore, MBA, CPA to the Addgene Board of Directors. Katz is the Director of Intellectual Property Programs at Suffolk University Law School and Paratore is the General Auditor at Tufts Health Plan.

The addition of Katz and Paratore onto the Board of Directors brings complementary experience and insight to the now 10 member board at Addgene. Let’s meet the newest board members and get to know them better!

Anyone who works in a lab is familiar with the alarming amount of waste that is generated. This is a systemic problem that we need to address, but is often ignored in the lab environment.