Decades of scientific research destroyed due to freezer failure at Swedish university

Damage amounts to tens of millions of dollars

Decades of scientific research were destroyed after a freezer at a Swedish university failed. The estimated value of the samples is believed to be in the millions, and the incident at the scientific institution was reported to police.

Research samples collected over decades at a Swedish medical university were destroyed when a freezer failed during the Christmas holidays, the institute said.

According to The Guardian, the samples were stored in tanks cooled with liquid nitrogen at -190°C at the Karolinska Institute (KI) in Stockholm.

The Karolinska Institute is home to the Nobel Assembly, which is tasked with selecting the winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Sometime between December 22 and 23, there was an interruption in the liquid nitrogen supply to 16 cryogenic tanks, and although the tanks could operate for four days without additional liquid nitrogen, they remained without it for five, resulting in the destruction of samples from several facilities.

Matti Sellberg, dean of Karolinska Institutet’s south campus, said on Monday: “This happened at perhaps the worst time imaginable in Sweden, just a day before Christmas Eve.”

The incident was reported to the police, the university added.

Some media reported that the estimated value of the lost samples was around 500 million kroner (£37 million).

Dean Sellberg said there had been no official estimate of the value of the lost samples, but said it easily ran into the millions.

“The hardest hit were those involved in leukemia research, who had been collecting samples from patients for as long as 30 years,” he added.

The university launched an internal investigation and, despite no signs of sabotage, the incident was also reported to the police.

Matti Sellberg states: “There is currently no indication that this was caused by outside influence, but the police report was drawn up taking into account all the circumstances.”

All samples were taken for research purposes only, so it would not affect the care of current patients, but was intended for use in future research, writes The Guardian.

“These are samples that have been the subject of extensive research, and there were plans for additional research,” Sellberg said.