Tip for Maintaining Sterility While Freeze Drying Cultures

You work hard generating new transgenic cultures and optimizing growth conditions in your fermentation unit. Have you ever wondered about the process of lyophilization using a freeze drying apparatus and the glass vessels that come with it, and why there wasn't a way to improve sterility? Dr. Geoffrey Kidd filed a patent in 1999, that was granted in 2003, for centrifuge-capable culture tubes with filter-lined caps that make them suitable for freeze-drying. The patent is an example of a simple, but grand idea, that promises to make preservation and storage of sterile cell cultures much easier. The tubes are available from Sartorius.