A nightmare for the academic community
The Swedish university Karolinska Institutet (KI) in Stockholm suffered a disaster when a freezer stopped working, causing the destruction of years of research. This loss not only represents a serious setback in terms of knowledge, but also results in a significant economic loss, with an estimated cost of millions of euros, according to The Guardian.
The accident took place during the Christmas holidays, when there was an interruption in the supply of liquid nitrogen to the cryogenic tanks where the samples were kept at a temperature of -190°C. This outage lasted five days, exceeding the four-day limit the tanks can hold without additional nitrogen.
Devastating impact on leukemia research
Leukemia research has been hardest hit, with patient samples collected for up to 30 years being lost. This has caused great consternation, and although an internal investigation has been launched at the university and the incident has been reported to the police, the impact of this freezer malfunction is so great that academic institutions they want to investigate what went wrong.
Economic and academic consequences
At an economic level, the loss is estimated at 43 million euros, according to local media. Although the university has not made an official estimate, dean Matti Sällberg has pointed out that the losses could easily reach millions of euros.
In addition to the economic impact, the academic consequences are enormous. The Karolinska Institutet is home to the Nobel Assembly, responsible for selecting the winners of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which highlights the importance and excellence of the research carried out there.
