Carolina Bandeira
Faculty: Health, Education, Medicine and Social Care
School: School of Allied Health
Course:
BSc (Hons) Medical Science
Category: Sciences nutritional and pharmaceutical
15 March 2019
The superlab is a containment level II laboratory that is available in our faculty.
This means it is suitable for work involving agents of moderate potential hazard to personnel and the environment. This includes various microbes that can cause mild disease to humans, or are difficult to contract via aerosol in a lab setting. Examples include Hepatitis A, B, and C viruses, HIV, pathogenic E. coli and salmonella.
Only authorized people are allowed to enter it and they should be equipped with lab coats, goggles and gloves, which are provided. It is very important that you wear these when in the lab to protect you against exposure to hazardous substances you work with.
The lab is highly equipped with not only lab material but also research material. The benches have a set of computers so that students can access the internet for research, or use Excel to access their data. An interesting feature is that the lecturers can use cameras to film them doing an experiment and then each student has access to that on the computers.
The microscope is one of the most interesting instruments to use as it allows you to see very fascinating cells invisible to the human eye. These microscopes are very high-tech and expensive but amazing to work with. Obviously there are other fascinating lab instruments.
All in all, the superlab is fully equipped with a lot of glassware and instruments imperative to perform all kinds of experiments. The lab sessions are very rewarding because you get an insight on what working in a scientific career is like.