Week 2, Day 2. Today we spent time in the IVPT department of Tergus pharma. When we arrived we were told that they had just discovered some contamination in the cells for the release testing. This meant that their plan to test samples was ruined, and instead, they had to spend the day cleaning out the cells. This was okay, however, because we got to see a crucial and relatively normal part of the IVPT work week, cleaning. Normally, they would use skin samples from cadavers and use it to test the release time of a drug through the layers of the skin.
We also learned more about the high potency room in the process. The high potency room contains chemicals which are carcinogenic and teratogenic (causes the malformation of an embryo). Because of this, two safety measures are put into place. First, anyone who enters the high potency room has to wear a mask. Second, the pressure is regulated so the room has lower pressure than the room outside. This means that whenever the door is opened, air flows in, not out, preventing unprotected people from coming in contact with dangerous substances. Later, we shadowed another person who ran their mass spectrometers. She was testing the contamination just to document how bad it was.
