Feature: To be a lab manager

If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies, Or being hated, don’t give way to hating, And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise: - Rudyard Kipling

With increasing commercial pressures, growing reams of compliance red tape, poorly prepared graduates, not to mention greater scrutiny of safety and security, these really are challenging times for those in charge of the many life sciences labs in Australia. “You can’t gain formal training to support you in this position,” says Tim Garrett, operations and facilities manager at Sydney’s Heart Research Institute (HRI). “You need hands on learning experience dealing with people and technology and laws; it’s complicated.”

Last year’s Laboratory Managers Conference 2010, held in Brisbane in November, hosted some of Australia’s foremost lab management experts discussing the key issues facing the industry, such as how to resolve the tension between administration and research; the importance of green technologies; lab construction; HR and OH&S; the handling and securing of dangerous substances; as well as practical business advice.

One of the keynote speakers was Greg Young, Manager Strategic Initiatives with the University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research (UQCCR). He feels that lab managers today are under more pressure than ever before, with one of the most challenging aspects of the job being lower levels of general staff competence.

“There are many people working in labs now with extremely naive science backgrounds,” he says. “For instance it has become increasingly common to see lab staff making mistakes, like using fume cupboards to do microbiological work. People are using the wrong tools and many just don’t know how to even store their chemicals. Often the people we supervise are not experts in their field nor their techniques.”

The UQCCR is recognised as being one of only a handful of facilities in the world equipped to support the full gamut of pre-clinical and clinical research activities. All up there is an impressive five floors of PC2 labs along with 19 clinical rooms. Many feel this facility sets a new standard for the future design of labs in Australia, and one which could play a key role in breaking down the various tribal groupings that exist within the Australian biotech and life sciences community. “The lab mentality and physician mentality are diametrically opposed – we’re very risk averse with our medical training,” says Young.

Duncan Jones, executive director of Science Industry Australia, says that the sorts of issues facing lab managers are pretty similar to those which affect most SMEs, such a staff retention, training, basis business management and the like. A major difference, however, and one which is attracting more and more attention, is the issue of how to secure dangerous materials, now increasingly the target of criminal and terrorist groups.

“I would have to say that most people with legitimate operations are probably not really across the other uses that people might wish for the biological agents they are purchasing,” Jones says.

For instance Timothy McVeigh blew up a 15-storey Oklahoma government building in 1995 with a dump truck laden with kerosene, cow manure and ammonium nitrate, a very common lab ingredient which had hitherto been considered relatively benign. “Lab managers need to play closer attention to the importation and distribution of these chemicals because they can be misused,” Jones warns.

One substance in particular which is often mishandled is picric acid. A common ingredient in many labs, however, if allowed to become too dry it can become unstable.

The new European Union REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) and the international GHS (Globally Harmonised System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals) will come into force in the next few months, with Australia expected to adopt many of the recommendations. Together they are expected to encourage better handling and labelling of dangerous substances as well as improved guidelines for dealing with substances of interest to criminals and or terrorists.

This feature appeared in the November/December 2010 issue of Australian Life Scientist. To subscribe to the magazine, go here.