The Suffolk-based design and build experts are providing an 11-bay portable shipping container laboratory for Oxitec’s malaria-fighting Friendly™ mosquito programme in Djibouti.
The Guardtech Group are doing their bit in the fight against malaria in Djibouti by designing and installing a Cleancube Multi 11 for leading biological pest solutions company, Oxitec.
The Haverhill controlled-environment construction specialists pre-fabricated a unique 11-container laboratory at their former Cleancube HQ in Brandon, Suffolk, for the initiative, for which mosquitoes are modified to carry a gene to combat an invasive species that transmits malaria in East Africa.
Guardtech’s award-winning cleanroom solution Cleancube Multi allows Life Sciences and High-Tech Engineering applications to place as many shipping containers as they require side by side, and stacked on top, to create large-scale facilities in places where traditional methods of construction are not possible.
Oxitec are US-owned biological pest solutions innovators founded in Oxford University and still have UK premises in nearby Abingdon.
“We have built good mosquitoes that do not bite, that do not transmit disease. And when we release these friendly mosquitoes, they seek out and mate with wild type female mosquitoes,” Oxitec CEO Grey Frandsen told the BBC.
The organisation has been introducing non-biting male Anopheles stephensi mosquitoes into the environment that carry a gene which kills female offspring before they reach maturity.
As a result, the number of female mosquitoes that bite—and therefore transmit malaria—should be drastically reduced, helping to potentially save thousands of lives by combating malaria in the region.
Djibouti was close to eradicating malaria back in 2012, when just 30 malaria cases were recorded, but the rise of the deadly Anopheles stephensi mosquito has seen that figure soar to 73,000 in 2020.
Guardtech Group Commercial Director Mark Wheeler, who sent a team of UK operatives over to East Africa to conduct the Cleancube installation, is proud that his team have been able to play a part in such a vital programme.
“We’re immensely proud to be involved with this potentially life-saving initiative,” he said. “Oxitec are helping to protect human life in regions where new solutions are sorely needed.
“This very much aligns with the ideals and values of our family business—and this project has touched each and every one of us here at the Guardtech Group.
“This is a ground-breaking scientific programme—and it’s a real badge of honour for us to have our cleanroom solutions associated with such innovative initiatives.
“Cleancube Mobile Cleanrooms, and in particular our Cleancube Maxi and Multi solutions, are also all about breaking paradigms, shifting expectations and solving problems.
“Oxitec needed a world-class facility to be dropped in an area where traditional construction wasn’t an option—and they needed it fast. They will now have a British-made laboratory in Djibouti that can withstand the rigours of the environment and deliver everything they need to continue with, and hopefully succeed with, their vital work.”
The Guardtech Group first launched Cleancube five years ago as a shipping container cleanroom solution for the Oil & Gas industry, but it became firmly established during the COVID-19 pandemic when around 50 Cleancube laboratories were deployed for rapid PCR testing at sites across the UK, including all major airports, TV and film studios, and elite sporting events.
Guardtech have since developed the solution to offer rapid cleanrooms and laboratories for businesses, and institutions like the NHS, that desperately need new lab space but don’t have either the time, budget, or permission to build new facilities or refurbish their existing premises.
“All we need is a car park, an empty warehouse or a plot of land and we’re ready to go,” adds Wheeler. “With Cleancube, you’re getting a facility that is every bit as good as one of our world-class turnkey or modular builds, only you have this incredible, unrivalled level of flexibility.
“Everything is pre-fabricated off site at our new manufacturing facility in Norfolk—it’s a plug-and-play solution. We can drop as many containers as you need, side by side and stacked up high, wherever you need them to go, and this suddenly opens up a world of possibilities for organisations that are restricted in some way from either redeveloping their existing home—or are struggling to build something entirely new.”
For more information on the Guardtech Group’s various solutions, email sales@guardtech.com, visit www.guardtech.com or call 0330 113 0303.
To discover more about Cleancube Mobile Cleanrooms, visit www.cleancube.co.uk—or to book a Cleancube Showroom, call 0330 113 0303 or email sales@guardtech.com.
