RESEARCH AT HOSPITAL

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29798, 14 April 1962, Page 10

RESEARCH AT HOSPITAL

Incubator For Medical Unit

A tissue incubator bought by the Canterbury Medical Research Foundation as a gift for the full-time medical unit at the Princess Margaret Hospital was handed over yesterday by the foundation chairman (Mr R. C. Neville) to the director of the unit (Dr. D. W Beaven). The incubator, which was imported from the United States at a total cost of about £350. is the first piece of equipment the foundation has bought for any research unit. The cost was met from the foundation’s genera! fund, a large part of which was raised by public subscription in a house-to-housc appeal in Christchurch last November.

The incubator will be used mainly to measure the metabolism life-processesi of tissues, and especially

cancerous tissues. from laboratory’ animals or human patients. Although Dr Beaven and his staff will be the chief users, other members of the hospital staff who wish to incubate tissue culture will be welcome to do so. The incubator is tempera-ture-controlled to within O.ldeg. centigrade. The tissue to be incubated is put into a sterilised container together with a suitable nutrient medium, and the container is then stood in the tray of the incubator. The tray is agitated mechanically at a controlled speed to bathe the tissue in the nutrient medium. Oxygen and other gases arc supplied at a rate required by the particular study.