The Trace Research Advanced Clean Environment (TrACE) lab provides a dedicated ultraclean working environment for molecular and genomic research. The 434 m2 class 100 (ISO 5) facility houses five class 10 (ISO 4) laboratory modules with 3 layers of HEPA air filtration containing specialised equipment, liquid handling robots and storage facilities.
The facility is certified as a Biosecurity Approved Arrangement Class 5.1 laboratory (BC1), and together with strict user management protocols, this facility provides a world class environment for sensitive detection of single copies of DNA molecules. These capabilities enable the Curtin team to provide results at a higher confidence than other testing facilities.
The lab can support a range of uses needing clean environments; it was originally designed to conduct geological studies on Moon rocks, and has recently been adapted to conduct molecular composition investigations in Earth rocks. Environmental and ancient DNA studies both share a common need to remove contaminants from the environment and thus the facility is currently dominated by these uses.
Email: TrACE facility manager Belinda Cox belinda.cox@curtin.edu.au