laboratory safety

How to increase the resiliency of biotechnology organizations in the face of emergency risks

From mouth pipetting to automated liquid handling, life-science labs have gotten much safer over the past three decades.

Readers reveal research mishaps

Reddit users share the worst mishaps they’ve witnessed while working in the lab.

Federal officials suspend research on certain pathogens at Tulane University following the escape of potentially dangerous bacteria from a high-security lab.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scientist who accidentally leaked H5N1 into a benign strain of avian influenza may have been rushing off to a meeting.

After a string of incidents leading to lab closures and a moratorium on the transfer of select agents, US labs are reassessing safety threats within their own walls.

Following recent high-profile safety lapses in government labs, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has placed a moratorium on movement of biological materials from BSL-3 and BSL-4 facilities.

A University of California, Los Angeles chemist facing criminal charges after a lab accident that killed his research assistant in 2009 avoids a public trial and jail time.

Fueled by donations, sweat, and occasional dumpster diving, community laboratories for DIY biologists are cropping up around the country.

The release of infectious agents from the lab is not uncommon, but lab-acquired infections are rare.

An international survey suggests that labs may not be safe as researchers think.

A researcher dead from a meningococcal infection may have acquired it in his laboratory.

A laboratory head faces criminal charges after one of his researchers died in a lab fire in 2008.