Vector Production Facility Description
Gown Room
The facility is entered through the Gown room, which is a non-classified cleanroom environment that is negatively pressurized relative to the hallway and the Common Area. This room contains a sink for hand washing, gowning supplies and a fold-down bench to facilitate gowning. When the facility is in cleanroom status, all personnel are fully gowned and all supplies are sanitized prior to crossing into the controlled portion of the Gown room for entry into the Common Area. An electronic display console shows temperatures, relative humidity, and differential air pressures inside the facility, and two multitrack chart recorders to continually record this information. In addition, temperatures, humidity values, and differential pressures are centrally monitored and alarmed.
Common Area
The Common Area is a 342 square foot Class 100,000 (ISO Class 8) environment that contains common laboratory equipment including two -80°C freezers, a -20°C freezer, refrigerator, and two centrifuges. This area is used for storage of clinical products, for centrifugation, for preparation of cleaning solutions, and for managing and labeling of incoming and outgoing materials. The room contains a large stainless steel work surface with sink and wire-molded shelving. The pass-through autoclave is used to autoclave biohazardous waste prior to it exiting the facility. Liquid nitrogen is piped in from the compressed gasses room.
Storage Rooms
There are two Class 100,000 storage rooms, approximately 55 square feet each, located at opposite ends of the Common Area. These rooms are used to store and separate quarantined materials from materials that have been approved for use in the production of a clinical product. Wire molded shelving runs the entire length of the storage rooms and each room contains a combination freezer/refrigerator.
Tissue Culture Lab Airlocks
The Tissue Culture Lab (TCL) Airlocks are positively pressurized Class 10,000 (ISO Class 7) environments that effectively separate the Common Area from the TCLs. The TCL Airlocks are each supplied with a shelving unit with gowning supplies and a fold-out bench to facilitate second-stage gowning. All personnel and supplies enter and exit the TCLs through these Airlocks.
Tissue Culture Labs
The VPF holds two 166 square feet Tissue Culture Labs (TLCs). The TLCs are Class 10,000 (ISO Class 7) environments that are equipped with a biological safety cabinet, CO2 incubators, a refrigerator, a multipurpose work area with water bath and microscope, and wire-molded shelving. CO2 for the incubators is piped in from the compressed gasses room. As the TCLs are completely separated, and only one clinical product is allowed to be processed in each TCL at the same time, the facility has a production capacity of two products simultaneously.
De-Gown Room
The De-gown Room is a non-classified cleanroom that is negatively pressurized relative to the Common Area and hallway. This room contains the liquid nitrogen vapor-phase freezer for the storage of cells and a liquid nitrogen storage tank. The freezer itself is located on the controlled side of the room while the liquid nitrogen storage tank remains on the non-controlled side of the room. All personnel, finished product, and non-autoclaved waste materials exit the facility through this room.
Compressed Gasses Room
This is a non-cleanroom environment accessible from the common hallway in the rear of the facility that holds the CO2 gas and (optional) liquid N2 tank. The room is equipped with an automatic change-over manifold that ensures delivery of CO2 gas to the TCLs from one of two CO2 banks.
Autoclave Room
This room holds the pass-through autoclave and serves as a holding area for disinfected biohazardous waste generated in the VPF.
Testing Lab
The testing laboratory is a fully equipped 100 square feet non-cleanroom BL2 research laboratory designed to support the VPF. This lab is primarily used to prepare and process microbiological samples and other materials that cannot be manipulated in the cleanroom and for research grade vector production. The lab contains a microbiological safety cabinet, a CO2 incubator, a combination refrigerator/freezer, microbiological incubators, and a multipurpose work bench with sink and storage shelving, and cabinets.
For further information regarding the Vector Production Facility (VPF), please contact Dr. Han van der Loo at
513-475-4093 (Ext. 1). For additional information about the Division of Experimental Hematology and Cancer Biology, please contact Dr. Yi Zheng at 513-636-0364. The Division of Experimental Hematology and Cancer Biology can be found in Room 7.205 of Location S Research Foundation Building.
