UA News

Yoder works behind the scenes to prepare solutions for scientific research on campus.

Name
Dena Yoder

Position
Media and Glassware Facility Supervisor, BIO5 Institute

Number of years at the UA
2

Favorite part about working at the UA
"Working in BIO5 is fabulous. The staff that I work with is just amazing. ... It's also intellectually stimulating."

 

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Just as a five-star restaurant can't survive without its dishwashers, the world-class labs at The University of Arizona wouldn't be able produce high-level research without glass washers keeping their lab equipment sparkling clean.

Scientific glassware washing is just one of the services provided by the BIO5 Institute's Media and Glassware Facility, supervised by Dena Yoder.  

Tucked into a tiny lab in the basement of the Thomas W. Keating Bioresearch Building, Yoder and a team of UA undergraduates in lab coats bustle between bottles and beakers, cooking up concoctions for researchers at the University's BIO5 Institute, which brings together scientists from basic science, medicine, pharmacy, agriculture and engineering.

Yoder, along with an assistant and four student workers, mixes liquid solutions and growth media – a liquid or gel substance designed to support growth of cells or microorganisms – according to requests from campus scientists who need the materials for their experiments.  

Researchers can custom order the formulations they need and even submit their own "recipes," which are mixed for them in advance of their experiments, saving them valuable time in the lab.

Media and Glassware Facility staffers also run high-powered washers and autoclaves that clean and sterilize scientific glassware, such as test tubes and beakers, ensuring the equipment is cleaned properly before use in an experiment.

Yoder recently took time out to talk with Lo Que Pasa about the meaningful service her facility provides to BIO5 researchers.

What goes on in the Media and Glassware Facility?
We do such a variety of things. We provide services for BIO5 researchers; that's our basic goal. We do glassware washing, autoclaving (sterilization) of glassware and other goods for people who want to bring them to us. ... I am reestablishing a partnership with a local company to provide lab coat laundry service. The bulk of the work that we do is to prepare growth media and reagents for BIO5 researchers to use in their research. ... They're items that people use to do scientific experiments. Sometimes they need liquid buffers or other liquid chemical mixtures that are necessary for running their experiments.

How many researchers do you work with?
We have 40 to 50 routine customers. However, we have, I think, 58 different laboratories that have accounts and approximately 150 customers that have accounts within those labs.

How long has the facility been open?
We opened two years ago, so we went from serving two different labs to the number that we have now in two years. I'm very pleased and happy that we've made this progress, and I think it speaks to the quality of work that we do.

When a researcher needs something made for them, what's the process they go through?
We have an online ordering Web site for growth media and reagents. Once a BIO5 researcher establishes an account with us it's very easy for them to go online and place their order. ... We're able to have researchers' proprietary recipes in their account so that when they go online they can look at their own specific recipes, specific to their own research, and other people will not be able to view those unless they're given permission. ... Then we have standard preparations that everyone uses. We have a convenience refrigerator that people can go to 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and pick up routine items, and they sign them out and they're billed monthly.

Who mixes the preparations?
I work in the lab doing custom formulations. The more routine formulations are prepared by student employees. I also have a laboratory assistant that is working on all of the preparations, so there are a total of six of us. And the student employees gain really valuable experience in learning how to work in a laboratory setting, getting hands-on experience with different techniques that we use in the lab.

Where were researchers getting these services before the facility existed?
Sometimes researchers have people that make their media in their own laboratories. However a lot of them have various student workers who do the work, and the consistency is not always there; sometimes the students don't have the expertise to make the quality that we make.

Do you prepare anything for classrooms or just individual researchers?
Almost everything that we do is for individual researchers' own research. However, we have a connection in the med school, (in the) microbiology part of the curriculum ... and we're working with MCB, molecular and cell biology, to provide them with some growth media for their fall courses this coming semester.

What glassware services do you offer?
We provide a plastic tub for them (researchers) to collect the glassware in. They bring their dirty glassware to us and specify what they want done, and we basically wash it and deliver it to them. It would be routine glassware like beakers, flasks, bottles, that sort of thing. ... We have critical drying for people who need ultradry glassware. We also have (an) autoclave service that's available. ... We have four glassware washing machines. We have two dedicated for detergent-free preparation. Specific experiments require that no soap have contacted any of the glassware. And we have two that are normal industrial-size glassware washers.

Where were you before you came to the UA?
For 16 years I ran the microbiology prep lab at CSU (California State University), Chico, and there I did many of the things that I do here, so I have a background as a microbiologist.

What are some of the specific ways in which this facility benefits researchers?
We strive to give BIO5 researchers the consistently highest quality that we can with great cost savings. Because of the high volume that we do, I'm able to negotiate good prices with vendors, and it's a cost savings to BIO5 researchers to order from us. ... Because of the level of research that's being done here, I have a lot of satisfaction knowing that what we're doing is helping researchers speed their research up a bit, because the time that we're spending allows them time to focus on their research. When one group (of researchers) was getting ready to go to Europe last year, one of their researchers came to me and said, "We would not have been able to meet our deadline without the media you've been making us."