Year 9 Scientists Mask Up for Microbiology!

Year 9 scientists visit Kedrion Biopharma to learn about different aseptic techniques for drug preparation.

On June the 25th, I had the privilege to visit Kedrion Biopharma with some of my classmates. It was a wonderful experience, especially for someone like  me who’s looking to have a career in science.

We learned about what Kedrion Bipharma does, which is coming up with very important medicines using blood plasma, and how they do this. I was blown away by the complicated methods of storing plasma and the processes involved in making medicines using plasma. We then learnt about clean rooms. We had fun washing our hands with a special gel and having a look at our hands under the UV light to see how many microbes were still present even though we had washed them. It was an interesting experience!

Our second activity, involved testing the room for different bacteria to show how difficult it is to get aseptic conditions as needed for their work. We rubbed the surface we wanted to test with a very professional equipment that has a cotton swab on the end to capture any microbes. The organisms will grow on the agar plate and we would be able to see them as colonies a few days after they have been incubated. It was super fun and I really look forward to receiving an update on what microbes might have grown on my plate!

The last activity was the most interesting activity to me. We actually got the chance to wear the protective suit of a grade D clean room and work like an actual employee – where we got a chance to work with a glove box, trying to rearrange different pieces of apparatus whilst wearing very thick gloves for maximum sterility! It was really inspiring and knowing people have to work in these suits for hours and hours just to make sure patients have clean and effective medicine really made me appreciate all the medicines and vaccinations that have saved many people from their struggles.

Our visit to Kedrion was great fun and very interesting and thank you to all the staff that made this possible.

Riyya G