MaryBeth DiDonna

A Russian cosmonaut has claimed that living bacteria found on the outside of the International Space Station came from outer space. Cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov told Russian news agency TASS that the ISS crew used cotton swabs to take samples from the external surface of the ISS during their spacewalks, particularly from areas where fuel wastes…

Samsung has revealed that it has developed a “graphene ball” technology made of graphene-silica that could potentially charge smart phones up to five times faster than current methods. The new technology utilizes a special graphene coating inside of a regular li-ion cell, which shields the electrode surface from harmful side reactions and offers efficient conductive…

Marvell Technology Group Ltd, a chipmaker based in Hamilton, Bermuda, has announced that it will buy smaller rival Cavium Inc., a network equipment builder in San Jose, Calif. The deal is valued at $6 billion, and is intended as a way for Marvell to expand its wireless connectivity business in the semiconductor industry and diversify…

The 2018 Laboratory Design Conference, presented by Laboratory Design and R&D Magazine — sister publications of Controlled Environments — will be held on April 23-25, 2018, at the Sheraton Philadelphia Downtown Hotel, in the heart of Philadelphia’s museum district. The staff of the 17th annual Laboratory Design Conference is seeking qualified lab design professionals interested in…

As each year comes to a close, I like to take a look back at the stories that resonated most with Controlled Environments readers throughout the year. Donald Trump, considered by many to be the underdog in the 2016 presidential election, made numerous promises during his campaign to “drain the swamp” and slim down the federal government. “The First Five…

A young boy named Hassan has received a new lease on life, thanks to skin transplants developed in a German cleanroom. Hassan suffers from junctional epidermolysis bullosa, a genetic skin disease he was born with that had devastated about 80 percent of his epidermis. The disease is characterized by a defect in protein-forming genes necessary…

Jurors in the federal trial of Glenn Chin, the supervisory pharmacist said to be involved in a deadly nationwide meningitis outbreak, have convicted him of racketeering and mail fraud charges. However, Chin has also been found not guilty of second-degree murder. The decision came on Wednesday, Oct. 25. Chin supervised the cleanrooms at the New…

Lawyers in the trial of Glenn Chin, the supervisory pharmacist said to be involved in the 2012 meningitis outbreak that killed 64 people and sickened more than 700 others, have delivered their closing arguments as Chin faces possible conviction for second-degree murder as well as racketeering and mail fraud charges. Read more: Cleanroom QC Agent:…

The quality control agent in charge of environmental monitoring in the New England Compounding Center’s cleanroom has testified that her email to the supervising pharmacist — which expressed concern that lab technicians had not completed reading the standard operating procedures — was met with a crude and abrupt reply. Glenn A. Chin, the supervisory pharmacist said…

A special agent from the U.S. Department of Defense introduced an email as evidence in the trial of a pharmacist accused of second-degree murder; the email stated that the defendant had ample warning that his company’s practices were “a disaster waiting to happen.” Glenn A. Chin, the supervisory pharmacist said to be involved in the 2012…

The defense attorney for a pharmacist accused of second-degree murder has argued that his client was just following his boss’s orders, while a federal prosecutor countered that the pharmacist showed a callous disregard for human life when he shipped out contaminated medicine. Glenn A. Chin, the supervisory pharmacist said to be involved in the 2012 meningitis…

In case you missed it (ICYMI), here are some of the stories that made headlines in the world of cleanrooms and nanotechnology in the past week. Physicists at the Clemson Nanomaterials Institute at Clemson University have designed a simple triboelectric nanogenerator, or U-TENG. The device is intended to take mechanical motion, such as ocean waves…

Germfree has been providing equipment for compounding sterile IV and hazardous drug preparations to the hospital pharmacy industry since the early 1970’s. Germfree’s HEPA filtered, unidirectional airflow equipment, also called Primary Engineering Controls (PEC), provide an aseptic environment that allows the pharmacist to handle sterile products in a contamination-free environment. As regulations in the hospital…