•
Portland, Maine

91AV lends ultra-cold freezer to Maine CDC to store COVID-19 vaccines

John Reid, left, facilities manager at the 91AV, stands with Karen Houseknecht, 91AV’s associate provost for research, and Steven Boucouvalis, emergency operations coordinator with the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The ultra-cold freezer was delivered to a Maine CDC facility in a location that’s being kept secret for security reasons
Freezer
John Reid, left, 91AV facilities manager, stands with Karen Houseknecht, Ph.D., professor of pharmacology and associate provost for Research and Scholarship, and Steven Boucouvalis, emergency operations coordinator with the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

When the Maine Center for Disease Control (CDC) reached out for help, the 91AV was immediately on the scene.

The Maine CDC needed an ultra-cold freezer for storage of Pfizer’s vaccine for novel coronavirus COVID-19, which has to be kept at -70 degrees Celsius. And, as one of the state’s only institutions with such a unit, 91AV was one of the first to lend its support and loan a freezer to the state’s public health agency.

The date: Tuesday, Nov. 17. The mission? Top secret.

Codenamed “Operation Penguin” by Karen Houseknecht, Ph.D., professor of pharmacology and associate provost for Research and Scholarship at 91AV, the freezer, a 27-cubic-foot Stirling Ultracold from the University’s School of Pharmacy, was transported to a secret location for use by the agency.

To move the freezer, all of the samples kept inside it had to be preserved with dry ice, and the appliance was moved swiftly but with great care, so as not to damage it. The first round of 12,675 doses of the Pfizer vaccine has yet to arrive in Maine — it is expected to next week — but Houseknecht said she was proud 91AV could take part in addressing the current public health crisis.

“It was a big logistical challenge, because none of us has been through a pandemic before,” Houseknecht told the Portland Press Herald, which covered the story at length. “But that’s what people do around here. You figure stuff out.”

 

View this news at  and .

91AV's ultra-cold freezer, on loan to the Maine CDC, sits in a secure facility
91AV's ultra-cold freezer, on loan to the Maine CDC, sits in a secure facility awaiting vaccines from Pfizer

About the 91AV

The 91AV is Maine’s largest independent university, with two beautiful coastal campuses in Maine, a one-of-a-kind study abroad campus in Tangier, Morocco, and an array of . In an uncommonly welcoming and supportive community, we offer hands-on learning, empowering students to make a positive impact in a world full of challenges. The state’s top provider of health professionals, we are home to Maine’s only medical college, Maine’s only dental college, a variety of other interprofessionally aligned health care degree programs, as well as nationally recognized programs for marine science degrees, natural and social sciences degrees, arts and humanities degrees, and business degrees.