Blue Howie type lab coat with the Lighthouse Labs logo, of the type used at the Lighthouse Lab at Alderley Park, by staff working on COVID-19 testing, 2020-2021

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is important to protect those testing COVID-19 samples. At Alderley Park Lighthouse Lab, people wear a lab coat with the logo of a green lighthouse as the neck of a piece of laboratory glassware. The Lighthouse Labs take their name from the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) testing technology which uses fluorescent light to detect the virus.

Alderley Park in Cheshire is one of the UK’s Lighthouse Labs – a high volume COVID-19 testing facility. Over 80,000 samples are tested every day. The lab is open 24 hours, seven days a week, staffed by three teams, each working a shift.

On 18 March 2020, Medicines Discovery Catapult (MDC) was asked by the UK government to coordinate the creation of the Lighthouse Labs Network and run one of the labs. Based at Alderley Park, MDC found a disused and empty building and with over 1000 volunteers and support from companies and the army, developed a testing facility that processed its first sample on 7 April 2020. Skilled local university students, postgraduates, PhD candidates and scientific and medical researchers, and staff from Medicines Discovery Catapult, AstraZeneca, and Cancer Research UK all gave their time to test samples. As many returned to their day jobs, over 700 staff were recruited to process test samples.

Howie style lab coats, with long sleeves, elasticated wrists, buttons on the left and a high collar are named after James Howie (1907-1995). He chaired a 1978 government report to organize clinical laboratory practise.