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LABORATORY quality control

Each day, spores are extracted from between 10-15 active pot cultures (standard schedule of 30 days before harvest -- which varies from 4-5 months after plant emergence). Spores are extracted in the prep room, after which they are transported in glass petri dishes to a refrigerator in the lab. Morton examines all of these cultures at one of the stereo- microscope workstations on the day of extraction, makes written notes (which are later entered into the Oracle database on our webserver), and either he or a staff member immediately washes out the dishes and then stores them in the drying room.
Click on the any room to see procedures used in that location.

While all of the information on cultures is entered into the Oracle database for easy computer access, all of the written notes are archived as a physical backup.

All files pertaining to the culture collection are centrally stored on the INVAM webserver, backed up to a separate hard disk on the same computer, and mirrored on another PC in the lab, a PC in the staff office, and the Mac in Morton's office.