HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL SLOAN DEVLIN LAB

The Sloan Devlin Lab is in the Department of Biological Molecular Pharmacology, it uses small chemical molecules to study and manipulate human associated bacteria. The lab leverages expertise from different fields, including organic chemistry, molecular biology, analytical chemistry, and bioinformatics. Like many of E4H projects with HMS, the project schedule was based on the arrival date of a newly hired PI. To keep the design process moving, E4H performed many of the programming and design sessions remotely using collaborative web-based meetings.

The unique design problem for this project was providing specific yet separate spaces for Chemistry and Biology while keeping them close to one another. Each chemist is paired with a biologist and they work closely throughout the day. The challenge was trying to consolidate the fume hoods in an efficient way to allow easy access, but minimize duct runs. The solution was to place all six fumes hood along the corridor wall the full length of the space. This spread out the chemists along the entire room keeping them close to their partner biologist. It also allowed for direct access from the fume hoods to the exhaust main in the corridor minimizing duct runs and ceiling congestion.