Samples collected for decades by researchers at a prestigious Swedish medical university were destroyed following a freezer malfunction during the Christmas holidays, the university announced Monday.
The incident was reported to the police, the university added.
The samples were stored at a temperature of minus 190 degrees Celsius in tanks cooled with liquid nitrogen at the Karolinska Institute (KI), a recognized medical university in Stockholm.
KI is home to the Nobel Assembly, which is responsible for selecting the winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Between December 22 and 23, the supply of liquid nitrogen to 16 cryogenic tanks was interrupted.
While the tanks can operate for four days without supplemental liquid nitrogen, they were without it for five days, leading to the destruction of samples from several institutions.
Internal investigation launched at university
“This happened at the worst time imaginable in Sweden, just one day before Christmas Eve
,” Matti Sallberg, dean of KI's south campus, told AFP.
Some media reported that the estimated value of the lost samples was around 500 million crowns ($47 million).
Sallberg said no official estimate of the value of the lost samples had been made, but it was easily in the millions.
“The people most affected are those who are researching
leukemia
, because they have collected patient samples over a period of up to 30 years
,” Sallberg said.
An internal investigation was launched at the university and, although there was no indication of sabotage, the incident was also reported to the police.
“There is no indication yet that the incident was due to outside influence, but a police report is being prepared to cover all hypotheses
,” Sallberg said.
The samples were all strictly for research purposes and their loss should not affect the care of current patients, but they were to be used for future research.
“These are samples that have been extensively studied and there were plans to do more
,” Sallberg said.