Hi,

It is our expertise, science, medicine-reagents and equipment that are going to get us through the current pandemic situation and find an overall solution. Whilst many of us are unable to attend our regular workplace, others will be working in the lab harder than ever and in dramatically altered situations.

Science Industry Australia and the Australasian Laboratory Managers Association have compiled a collection of resources to help us navigate through changed conditions, as well as keeping atop of the latest news while working from home.

We've also opened up the conversation to our members, affiliates and friends on our social media channels. We invite you to join us to share your experience and connect with others to coordinate resources and expertise.

The Australian Society for Microbiology (ASM) is putting together a database of qualified people who are willing to be called upon in case of a potential staff shortage to assist with COVID-19 testing (or any other requests required) at hospitals or other diagnostics labs across Australia.

This database will be shared with local public health hospitals and diagnostic labs. It is envisioned that in the event of a staff shortage, volunteers can be trained to support ongoing COVID-19 testing. ASM is also looking for people who can donate molecular biology reagents for COVID-19 testing in particular viral swabs and unopened RNA extraction kits.

Please contact laurence.luu@unsw.edu.au if you have any questions.

With governments and companies doing what they can to halt the spread of COVID-19, more and more of us will find ourselves beginning to work remotely from home. For a lot of us, this will be the first time that our teams have needed to work remotely. We may be discovering that it is more challenging than simply opening our laptops at the kitchen counter!

In this webinar, Fifty Acres founder Jo Scard will share her insights on how to make remote work effective for your team and organisation. She'll share advice on how to build remote work best practice into your working-from-home arrangements to ensure a smooth transition, continue productivity and feel like you're still connected to your team and co-workers.

Working as a Remote Team

Wednesday, April 1, 2020

12:00pm AEDT

Many of us will be considered essential personal as research into COVID-19 continues. Most of us understand the nature of clean lab techniques, but we might not be aware of how these techniques protect us and our laboratory from a biological contamination risk.

In this webinar, Patricia Atkins and Rebekah Biermann from SPEX CertiPrep will review common laboratory cleanliness practices and how they can be increased or changed to combat biological agents, discuss the biology and virology involved in the current outbreak, and highlight where biological controls may contribute unfortunate chemical contamination to their analysis to help minimise disruption to work.