Implementation of a pre‑Good Laboratory Practice management system for academic research

The implementation of quality control procedures, at an academiclaboratory, relies on a system that flows information to scientists, staff,and students in a clear and accountable manner.The organization and implementation of new methodologies, in a newlaboratory, implies the definition of a work culture and structure frominception to completion. Establishing and maintaining a new workphilosophy is demanding and requires constant and close supervisionof all laboratory actions. Particularly, when the methods are innovativeand require a significant change of work culture from users.By establishing a system that standardizes common laboratory protocolsto facilitate training while simultaneously tracking progress, wesuccessfully implemented a pre-Good Laboratory Practices (pre-GLP)facility at the Faculty of Medicine of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa(FM).The pre-GLP system is an adaption of the system adopted by theJenner Institute, University of Oxford. Briefly, the new users aretrained on Standard Operations Procedures (SOP), provided by acompetent user. Once training is successfully completed, the user isapproved and qualified as competent user. All training actions arerecorded in the researcher’s internal record. The internal records areinternally verified by the laboratory manager, and laboratory director,and externally audited.The SOPs are regularly updated and improved to reflect any significantupdates on procedures, equipment, and reagents. UpdatedSOP´s are reassessed and follow the pipeline of approval. Implementationof this laboratory management system is a step forwardin quality assurance and standardization of methodologies towardsgood laboratorial practices, increased health, and safety, and qualitydata production.Finally, the implementation of this quality assurance method at theFM, provides an additional layer of health and safety protection forusers, simultaneously assuring reproducibility and reliability of protocolsacross the campus.