Mount Allison is assisting in New Brunswick’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic by providing ultra-low freezer space with a loan of two -80C-degree lab freezers to the province for vaccine storage over the coming months.

Normally used in the Department of Biology and the Department  of Chemistry and Biochemistry to preserve lab samples and specialized chemicals, researchers re-organized their labs over the holiday break with help from researchers in the Department of Psychology, to enable two of the University’s -80C-degree lab freezers to be loaned to New Brunswick Public Health for COVID-19 vaccine storage and distribution across the province. The Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine requires -80C-degree storage.

Dean of Science Dr. Amanda Cockshutt helped co-ordinate the move, spending part of her holiday re-organizing samples in her own lab and assisting others.

“Vaccine distribution is a key lever in controlling the pandemic and we are happy to help with the required freezer storage. Thank you to all of the researchers who took time from their break to make this happen,” she says.

The province plans to have -80C freezers across the province’s health regions to store the vaccine.

Hear more from Dr. Cockshutt on CBC NB’s Shift