Research Work Is Spoiled at Columbia Medical Labs
By RANDY KENNEDY

                                        Columbia University medical
researchers said Thursday that the power
                                        failure that darkened northern
Manhattan may have destroyed or set back
                                        by months hundreds of
experiments into illnesses ranging from
                           Alzheimer's disease to cancer to AIDS.

                           Two of Columbia's four laboratory buildings
in Washington Heights -- which
                           together make up one of the state's largest
medical research complexes, with
                           around $200 million annually in Federal
financing -- were without any power on
                           Tuesday night and through most of Wednesday
when the university's backup
                           generators were either not in place or
failed, university officials said.

                           Even when the backup generators began
running, they provided only minimal
                           power through late Thursday, they said.

                           They said that freezers that maintain samples
of tissues, blood, viruses and
                           bacteria began to warm up before they could
rush in to pack them with dry ice.
                           And incubators that maintain stable
environments for experiments stopped
                           working, forcing scientists to throw away
dozens of cell samples.

                           "It may take us weeks or months to be able to
assess the full extent of what has
                           happened, but we do know there has been
extensive damage and damage to
                           very important research," said Dr. Herbert
Pardes, dean of the faculty of
                           medicine for the College of Physicians and
Surgeons at Columbia.

                           Thursday, researchers dumped into pink
biohazard trash bags what they
                           estimated to be hundreds of thousands of
dollars' worth of enzymes and other
                           chemicals ruined when refrigerators lost
power.

                           University officials said that their own
emergency power systems, intended to
                           protect delicate and in some cases
irreplaceable research material, failed for a
                           number of reasons. The university was unable
to supply emergency power to an
                           18-story research building at 168th Street
and Fort Washington Parkway for
                           almost 24 hours because a backup generator
was on order, to be installed later
                           this summer.

                           A generator at another building relied on
steam from New York Presbyterian
                           Hospital's steam plant, which Columbia
officials said failed because of low
                           water pressure in the area. The officials
said Con Edison was then unable to
                           help the university connect portable
generators to those buildings for several
                           hours because they were busy insuring that
the hospital received backup power.

                           "It was multiple things things that happened
at one time," said Carolyn Conway,
                           a spokeswoman for the Health Sciences
Division at Columbia. "Nobody ever
                           thought that power would be down for three
days."

                           Although Con Edison restored power to much of
Washington Heights
                           Wednesday evening, the hospital and
Columbia's research buildings were still
                           without power from the utility most of the
day Thursday.

                           Michael J. Spall, a Con Edison spokesman,
disputed Columbia's account. He
                           said last night that while maintaining
emergency power for the hospital was the
                           highest priority, Columbia officials never
asked for help in connecting portable
                           generators to the two buildings without
backup power,

>>>>>>>>>>>the William Black Medical Research Building

                        and the Armand Hammer Health Sciences Center, both on
                           West 168th Street.

                           Columbia officials said the damage could
reverberate beyond the research at
                           those buildings, because it shares tissue
samples and other materials with as
                           many as 30 other medical research schools,
including New York University and
                           Mount Sinai medical schools in New York.

                           Marc Stern, a spokesman for the National
Institutes of Health, the Federal
                           agency that finances much of Columbia's
research, said he could not confirm
                           the extent of the damage.

                           In lab after lab, researchers spent Thursday
using dry ice to save what they could
                           and trying to figure out what they had lost.


>>>>>>>>>>>Dr. Michael Shelanski, a Columbia neurobiologist and an
expert on Alzheimer's
                           disease, said that researchers in his lab
thought they were able to save what
                           they call the "brain bank," a freezer with
hundreds of samples of brain tissue, by
                           packing it with dry ice before temperatures
rose substantially.

                           But he said a bank of tumor tissue for
several research projects warmed up
                           more, from 80 degrees below zero centigrade
to 20 degrees below. That may
                           have ruined some tissues, especially because
they became colder again once
                           emergency power was available, which may have
created ice crystals that
                           damaged cells, Dr. Shelanski said.

                           Freezers with cells involved in prostate
cancer research also warmed to 20
                           degrees below centigrade and could have been
damaged.

                           "We will not know until we have used every
individual sample," Dr. Shelanski
                           said. "Basically, what this does is makes you
suspicious of everything you have."
                           He said the situation was made worse because
Con Edison did not provide
                           reliable information to the university about
how long central power would be off.

                           "What's unconscionable is not that power
failed," he said Thursday afternoon,
                           "but that we were made to think that it was
going to come back earlier, and it still
                           has not." Behind him in the sunlit
laboratory, researchers were peering into a
                           dark, warm refrigerator that had not come
back on with emergency power.

                           Several floors below them, Dr. Samuel
Silverstein, chairman of physiology and
                           cellular biophysics, said that the failure of
two incubators forced researchers to
                           throw out dozens of samples.

                           Some of the cells in Dr. Silverstein's lab
were from human umbilical cords, being
                           used to investigate white blood cell activity
for use in understanding
                           inflammation in illnesses like rheumatoid
arthritis.

                           "This was full of flasks of cells, and now
they're all gone," said Dr. Silverstein,
                           opening a nearly empty refrigerated case. He
and other researchers estimated
                           that the experiment had been set by back a
month.

                           Behind him, two scientists emptied the
shelves behind a stainless steel door in
                           a room that should have been refrigerated but
was about as warm as the
                           laboratory, where Dr. Silverstein stood
sweating.

                           "In this lab alone, I know we've lost
hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of
                           enzymes and other reagents," said Dr. Indra
Koraci, who was helping pull dark
                           bottles and beakers from the shelves.

                           Researchers were particularly worried that
irreplaceable cell samples, taken
                           from patients as long as 15 years ago and
involved in long-term research, might
                           have been lost as freezers warmed up.

                           "If we're working on a particular brain from
some time ago, especially in cases
                           where the patient may have died or conditions
are changed, then we can't go
                           back to that brain and gather more tissue,"
Dr. Silverstein said. "Right now, it
                           doesn't look like we've lost anything and
we're trying to salvage what we think
                           may have been damaged. But in the weeks to
come, we may find that we've lost
                           more than we think."


                                                            Copyright
1999 The New York Times Company