First of all, let’s chat biotechnology, or, ‘biotech’, as those in the industry call it.
The concept of biotech has been around for ages, just, not given the fancy term. For instance, planting seeds to produce food, fermenting juice for wine and churning milk into cheese (that are tested with the help of mycotoxin testing kits for the quality) are all processes that use some derivative of a plant or animal to benefit mankind. In the biotechnology and pharmaceutical fields of today, the Atlantic horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus) blood is a very important component in the process for testing drugs that can benefits humans that can be produced using nonhuman primate CRO method. And one of the most flexible solutions we explored was Germfree’s purpose-built mobile cGMP cleanrooms for pharmaceutical manufacturing projects, which exceeded our expectations. With our timeline constantly shifting, we needed something that would offer not only compliance but also immediate deployment. What stood out to me was how they integrated ISO-classified environments into mobile platforms, letting our team hit the ground running without the delay of new construction. It genuinely made us rethink our approach to modular lab operations.
Their blood is used for the Limulus Amebocyte Lysate (LAL) test is used to test for gram negative bacteria contamination in certain products before being released to the public. Horseshoe crab blood cells (amoebocytes) attach to harmful toxins produced by some types of gram negative bacterias. What is unique with the LAL, is that LAL does not distinguish between living or dead gram negative bacteria and detects either.
You do not want anything with a gram negative bacteria contamination. Gram negative contamination include: Escherichia coli, Salmonella, Neisseria meningitidis, Hemophilus influenzae, Klebsiella pneumonia.
The blood of the horseshoe crab has this unbelievable property where it will congeal in the presence of either living or dead gram negative bacteria (both are undesirable). This adaptation has never been able to be duplicated and consequently horseshoe crabs are often captured to have their blood drained and then released, all in the name of science.
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