Grenova Pipette TipCycle Initiative
How much does your lab spend annually on pipette tips?
We assume a substantial amount!
As such, we are hoping to gauge interest and raise funds to purchase a Grenova pipette tip washer for the campus. Our plan would be to install it in the Beacon Center in the BI as a recharge center. This would include significant verification and testing of the technology on pipette tips that were used for assays on the Caltech campus, so we know that the technology is suitable for all our labs' needs. If you are interested in helping us test the technology here at Caltech, or if you think your lab would be interested in helping to purchase one (your lab would then receive a free or discounted service once the machine is installed), please fill out this form.
Grenova Pipette TipCycle Initiative
Grenova's pipette tip washer enables the washing and reuse of multiple pipette tip racks per cycle; compatible with both manual and automated workflows. These tip washers utilize reagents, flushes, UV light exposure, soaking, sonication, and mechanical tip agitation to clean pipette tips. Multiple universities have validated and incorporated these tip washers into their daily workflows, and have realized a savings cost of 90% through reuse of their pipette tips. Labs typically reuse pipette tips 10-20x, but there is potential for even more reuse. Grenova has worked to measure the carbon footprint of their machines, quantify waste reduction, and assess water conservation to ensure that they are meeting their sustainability goals.
Our plan: The Caltech Tip Cycle Program pilot project would have three main aims: 1) validating the utility of the Grenova tip washer for use with the Beacon instrument; 2) determining the data required to encourage long-term behavioural changes that will integrate sustainable habits, including pipette tip washing, into laboratory workflows; 3) validating the tip washer with other laboratory workflows as the tip washing program expands, potentially into a recharge center.
If you are interested in helping us test the technology here at Caltech, or if you think your lab would be interested in helping to purchase one (your lab would then receive a free or discounted service once the machine is installed), please fill out this form.
Multiple universities have verified the technology, and typically get 10-20 uses out of each box of tips that are washed. If you'd like to see a lunch and learn presentation from December or validation studies, please see the items in this box folder (just sign in using your Caltech access login information).
Labs produce 12 billion pounds of plastic every year!
We estimate a single laboratory at Caltech can produce 36,000 pipette tips in a year – that means 50 labs in BBE alone produce 2.5 tons of pipette tip waste each year. Pipette tips also comprise a significant amount of laboratory budgets for consumables, with expenditures ranging from $8,300 - $22,000 per year for the Beacon Center alone (with prices varying between $32 and $86 for 960 tips). Furthermore, as we have seen in the last few years, pipette tips can be subject to supply chain fluctuations and delays in sourcing, despite the fact that tips are made of polypropylene, a durable material that can be washed and reused. Caltech Green Labs aims to tackle this issue by exploring tip washing further. Our group has had success setting up recycling programs with several vendors to return used pipette tip boxes to the companies for reuse or recycling, diverting over 900 gallons of plastic waste that would have otherwise not been recycled in the first months of the program. While these programs have mitigated some of the environmental impact of these necessary consumables, the sustainability of the pipette tips themselves remains unaddressed.
The problem: Labs produce 12 billion pounds of plastic every year! Production of lab plastics, including pipette tips, is unsustainable. For example: the production of 960 pipette tips releases 1.75 kg to 5 kg of CO2 and uses 89 L of water, whereas washing 960 tips only produces 0.5 kg of CO2, and consumes 25 L of water. We estimate a single laboratory at Caltech can produce 36,000 pipette tips in a year and can cost from $8,300-$22,000 per year for a single lab! Furthermore, we have all recently seen the consequences of supply chain fluctuations and delays in sourcing, despite the fact that tips are made of polypropylene, a durable material that can be washed and reused. As such, Caltech Green Labs aims to tackle this issue by exploring tip washing further.
The production of 960 pipette tips releases 1.75 kg to 5 kg of CO2 and uses 89 L of water, whereas washing 960 tips only produces 0.5 kg of CO2, and consumes 25 L of water. Grenova has developed instruments that can wash and dry pipette tips numerous times, using various cleaning methods depending on the contamination type. Specifically, the TipNovus model is a benchtop, robotic arm-friendly, high-throughput device that enables laboratories to wash and sanitize pipette tips for reuse. Four tip-racks can be washed per wash cycle, and up to 24 per hour. The Grenova instruments also include the TipLumis, a HEPA-filtered, temperature controlled storage cabinet with UV lights, which can be used to expedite the drying process within a clean environment that is programmable and customizable.
The TipNovus has been successfully integrated into several universities including Georgia Tech. Furthermore, Grenova has validated the TipNovus for pipette tips used in PCR, determining that tips used to load patient DNA and reagents do not leave residuals after being washed, and will not result in carry-over contamination of samples during PCR assays. Validations have also been conducted by Grenova on additional assays including: COVID-19 tests, ELISAs, mass spectrometry, toxicology, and RNA library production. Secondary validations have been conducted by the NIH and the CDC. The CDC also conducted additional verification of the wastewater, ensuring it met the safety standards that waste be between pH 7 and 9, and did not include any hazardous chemicals6. Additionally, the CDC validated the physical integrity of the tips, determining that the accuracy and precision of tips was no different after 11 wash cycles as compared to virgin tips.
Check out additional validation studies here.
Check out sustainability impacts here.
Aim 1: Validation on the Beacon Instrument
Currently, there is an under-utilized robotic liquid handler in the Beckman Institute that can link to the TipNovus tip washers, making tip-washing feasible and automated. After installation of the TipNovus machine, including linking to the robotic liquid handler, Grenova will perform their own validation and calibration tests. The TipNovus will then be internally validated by comparing virgin tips and tips used during various Beacon assays to determine if there is any carry-over. Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (qPCR) validation, which is extremely sensitive, will also be utilized to confirm that washed tips can be utilized in sensitive assays without risk of affecting research objectives. Confirmation of precision and accuracy of tips washed multiple times will also be performed, along with analysis of wastewater to confirm it conforms with laboratory safety standards. These validation steps are necessary not only to prove to ourselves that the tip washer performs as advertised, but also to convince Caltech researchers of the validity and value of utilizing washed tips. These tests also ensure that the robotic liquid handler will be compatible with the TipNovus and will substantiate that washed tips can be used in sensitive assays without any consequences to the science. All of these results will be made publicly available. In the case that washed tips are not of high enough quality for scientific application, we will also explore options for recycling the pipette tips.
Aim 2: Determining Behavioural Changes Required for Sustainable Initiative Adoption and Recharge Center Integration
While the TipNovus instrument is validated, research will be conducted to gauge interest from researchers in utilizing a tip washing service. This investigation may include, but is not limited to: Lunch and Learn sessions by Grenova; surveys; or quizzes, to determine what kinds of data are necessary to encourage adoption of sustainable practices, especially practices that may impact scientific workflows. Queries to potential users would include: interest in incorporating tip washing into laboratory workflows; reasons for hesitancy (if any); tip brands labs utilize and numbers of tips requiring washing; what uses tips endure before potential washing (with the knowledge that hazardous or non-BSL2 or lower tips would not be accepted). These data would be compiled to determine the cost-savings and plastic diversion rates for each laboratory interested in the service. At this stage, a small number of interested labs would be invited to test the tip washer in their own labs, with their own reagents, in their own workflows. Further, data would be collected to establish what the costs of tip washing would be, including costs of reagents and operators, the tip washing cycle requirements and load of each interested lab, the capacity of the tip washing workflow, and Return On Investment (ROI) calculations for each lab. We will also determine what incentives, advertisements, competition between labs, ROI determinations, or other data are useful at encouraging long-term behavioural changes and adoption of sustainable practices, including tip washing.
Determinations on what is required to set up a recharge center will be made. These determinations may include researching types of barcode systems that can track tip owners and wash protocols, determining location and size requirements for storage of unwashed and washed tips, and any other considerations for this recharge center. Further, costs of use will be determined to ensure that the labs can be charged costs less than a new box of tips to utilize the tip washer, while ensuring that the recharge center is able to support itself. These data, along with validation data, will all be made publicly available to prove to Caltech researchers that the adoption of this workflow will not impact their scientific workflows or research. Even if the recharge center is mainly utilized by the Beacon Center, it will pay for itself in a matter of years due to the reduced need to purchase virgin pipette tips. If the pilot convinces many laboratories to integrate tip-washing into their protocols, there are options to scale this operation with additional TipNovus devices.
Aim 3: Validation with Additional Laboratory Protocols
Lastly, the data collected during the two initial aims will be made publicly available. The program would hopefully have gained enough interest to ensure the program's success as a recharge center, where labs would be charged less than the cost of a box of tips to utilize the service. Determinations of where to store both the clean and dirty tips, if a barcode system is necessary, and workflow considerations will be made as the program is opened to any interested labs at Caltech. Further, each lab interested in utilizing the tip washer will be asked to verify that, in their lab, in their hands, using their reagents, using our automated robotic liquid handler, the tip washer is effective at sterilizing tips such that they can be reused in normal laboratory workflows for sensitive assays. Return on Investment (ROI) determinations will be made for each lab in terms of plastic waste diverted and cost savings for an entire year, based on estimated usage. We hope that this recharge center will become a staple in laboratory workflows that will not only be cost-effective for labs and prevent reliance on an unpredictable supply chain, but will also divert up to 2.5 tons of single-use plastic waste per year and reduce carbon emissions and water waste. The data collected during our pilot will inform what kinds of behavioural changes and incentives are needed to establish sustainable programs at Caltech and elsewhere. These data will also inform the positive benefits of sustainable labs, including increasing the visibility of Caltech as a leader in sustainability, and will encourage labs to adopt other sustainable practices that will further benefit the Caltech community.