Before a BARB Core cleanout. Image courtesy BARB CoreWhen someone leaves an office, flipping the space for a new occupant may require only a vacuum, a duster and someone to carry out the trash. But when someone leaves a laboratory, it’s an entirely different situation.

The Bio-Analytical Redox Biology (BARB) Core’s Professional Lab Cleanout Services team specializes in cleaning out unused lab space and getting it ready for new occupants. “Closing out” a lab, to use the technical term, requires a team that can handle biohazardous materials, manifest chemicals, navigate Environmental Health and Safety regulations and standards, deep-clean specialized equipment, decontaminate lab stations, properly dispose of waste, and much more. It requires certified professionals.

“You cannot imagine the things we have seen and cleaned in labs across campus,” said Melissa Sammy, Ph.D., operational director of the BARB Core.

The entire BARB Core cleanout team is fully certified by UAB Environmental Health and Safety and by UAB Green Labs at the highest (platinum) level.

Reshaping “a difficult, time-consuming proposition”

In 2023, the Department of Neurobiology needed a 1,000-square-foot lab in the Shelby Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research Building turned over for new scientists. The investigator who had been in the space took a position in another country, leaving behind the remnants of decades of work, including eight freezers filled with chemicals, reagents and other hazardous materials, plus an entire bay and a half full of more chemicals.

The task of cleaning out the lab fell to Kevin Speed, then director of Administration and Fiscal Affairs for the department. He searched online and was surprised to find a solution at UAB where all you had to do was fill out an online request form, join a call to discuss the scope of needs and then set a timeline.

“Just throwing out what could be thrown out and manifesting the rest for [UAB Environmental Health and Safety] pickup would have taken days of my time,” Speed said. “Sorting through multiple drawers of supplies, consumables and other assorted items to see what was worth keeping and what was not would also be a difficult, time-consuming proposition.” He estimates the BARB Core saved him 30 to 35 hours of work.

 Before and after a BARB Core closeout. Images courtesy BARB Core

Saving time and money

How did a scientific core come to specialize in lab closeouts, too? “When some of our decades-long Nutrition Sciences faculty members retired and stopped their research enterprises, there were quite a few labs and offices that needed to be emptied and cleaned out,” said Doug Moellering, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Nutrition Sciences and director of the BARB Core. “There were discussions about how much this was going to cost our department, due to the nature of the chemicals, biological samples, radioactivity, equipment, etc. I mentioned that, several years before, I had volunteered to help with lab cleanouts, and I knew that our BARB Core personnel could help our university, departments and administrators with these current projects in a much more cost- and time-efficient manner.” 

After his group cleaned and closed out multiple labs and offices in the Webb Building, redistributing any useful consumables, glassware and equipment, “we realized that there was a major need across campus for this service,” Moellering said. “Our BARB Core personnel have decades of experience, are all certified in all areas relating to the research enterprise and are well-trained, too. And we have always enjoyed collaborating with UAB’s outstanding Environmental Health and Safety team.”

The Department of Nutrition Sciences is known globally for research that works toward the prevention of chronic metabolic diseases, like obesity, diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease. It is home to two NIH-funded research centers, the Diabetes Research Center — one of only 17 in the United States — and the Nutrition Obesity Research Center — one of only 11 in the country.

The department, which has numerous labs in the Webb Building, averages a few cleanouts each year, says Julia Tolbert-Jackson, facilities coordinator for the UAB School of Health Professions. “The BARB Core has flipped 10 labs for us since 2023,” Tolbert-Jackson said. “They probably saved me four weeks of work overall — it’s a lot of time.”

Lab cleanups and closeouts can also cost a lot of money — if you outsource.

Tolbert-Jackson joined SHP in 2022. Shortly after her start, she was asked to close out her first lab. The team in Environmental Health and Safety told her that the work required specialized training due to the possible chemical hazards involved.

That led her to the internet to find an organization that could help. One external group offered to clean a single five-shelf cabinet for $5,000. Considering how many cabinets are in a typical lab space, the cost for the entire lab was going to be astronomical.

When she connected with the BARB Core, they offered to take care of her dirty work for a flat fee of $100/hour. It is the rate they continue to offer today.

Faith Lang, administrative supervisor for the Division of Cardiovascular Disease in the Heersink School of Medicine, reached out to the BARB Core for help cleaning out a lab in Volker Hall. Her project had a rapid turnaround due to impending construction projects. The BARB Core met her deadline and exceeded her expectations.

She sent the team an email afterward, thanking them for their “incredible guidance and support.” “I have been very impressed with your level of leadership and diligence in getting this project completed,” Lang wrote. “I am so deeply appreciative of your efforts!”

 Images courtesy BARB Core

Planning strategically for UAB

“Our services are priced to benefit everybody,” Moellering said. “We get your lab back up and running quickly because lab space is so valuable at UAB that you don’t want it sitting there stagnant; plus, the money stays at UAB, so we can invest in our staff, equipment and facility.”

Moellering says the BARB Core team planned strategically to make sure its lab cleanup and closeout efforts matched the UAB Forging Ahead foundations and pillars.

To improve financial sustainability, they offer all cleaned equipment and consumables to faculty and staff within their client’s program, division, department or school and then to the entire UAB research community. 

Their environmental stewardship is obvious based on their work in sustainable practices. UAB encourages a Green Labs culture; the BARB Core takes it a step further. Any unwanted glassware is donated to UAB Green Labs, which can then be claimed for free by research teams across UAB. They also partner with Green Labs to reuse cardboard boxes and packaging materials for manifesting hazardous waste.

Plus, clean labs grow and support UAB talent and help the university recruit the best outside talent, Moellering says.

“In our research, we always place an emphasis on the quality and reliability of our discoveries,” he said. “A clean lab is crucial to ensuring the integrity of our experiments and our studies and makes certain that our data is accurate and trustworthy.”

Images courtesy BARB Core

“Just takes the stress off”

The BARB Core team does their cleanup and closeout job so well because they are, first and foremost, faculty and staff researchers, Moellering says.

Since 2008, the BARB Core has provided state-of-the-art services in mitochondrial metabolism, oxidative stress, and psychological and physiological stress assessment research. The core has provided services to more than 350 UAB and external principal investigators working in diabetes, obesity, exercise, pediatric neonatology, cancer, aging, optometry, microbiology, neurobiology, nutrition, pain, psychology, urology and cardiometabolic disease. They are supported by the Heersink School of Medicine, the Diabetes Research Center (NIDDK P30DK079626) and the Nutrition Obesity Research Center (NIDDK P30DK056336).

Labs are their home, their expertise and their sole focus, Moellering says.

“Administrators and other staff wear plenty of hats, and to be able to pass off the lab cleanout and closeout responsibilities to a reputable group who knows what they are doing was a blessing for me and will be for others as well,” Speed said. “I highly recommend them.”

“This just takes the stress off of me,” Tolbert-Jackson said. “It is so much easier to have someone who knows what they are doing and is part of the UAB family to go in there and take care of everything.”

To request BARB Core services, just fill out their brief Service Request Form: https://forms.office.com/r/6mDGk2XYuY.