New faculty member Mikaela Pyrch, Ph.D., center, has saved more than $9,000 in setting up her lab through UAB Green Marketplace. Pyrch is shown with lab members (left to right) graduate student Kavitha Tamilarasan, undergraduate student Tahzjayee (TJ) Gaymon, graduate student Ben Eason, and undergrads Mason Bayles and Hannah Nolan.There is no price better than free.
Soon after Mikaela Pyrch, Ph.D., arrived at UAB last fall to set up her first lab, she heard about UAB Green Marketplace, a kind of eBay for used lab equipment, where researchers can offer up unneeded equipment and supplies so that other UAB labs can save on duplicate purchases. The price is always the same: zero dollars, zero cents.
Pyrch, an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry, studies actinide chemistry — the inner workings of the family of radioactive elements at the very bottom of the periodic table that includes uranium, thorium and plutonium.
Free beakers, separatory funnels, ring stands and more from UAB Green Marketplace saved Pyrch more than $9,000 in setting up her new lab. In fact, she saved so much that she has been able to accelerate the purchase of the priciest piece of equipment on her list — a single-crystal X-ray diffractometer.
The free equipment that Pyrch acquired is “right now being used to make new organic molecules that could bind medically relevant metals,” she said. “A major focus for our lab is on combining short-lived isotopes of thorium and uranium with new ligands that can be used for targeted alpha therapy, a developing treatment for various cancers.”
Researchers have saved more than $80,000
In just the first few months of operation of the UAB Green Marketplace, researchers have saved more than $80,000, says Emily Colpack, sustainability lead for UAB Sustainability. In addition to unused items posted by UAB labs, the Sustainability team has added items to the site that were left behind after UAB scientists retired or moved to other universities. “From just one abandoned lab, we were able to recover more than $39,000 in equipment and supplies,” Colpack said.
After a successful pilot test of another resource-sharing platform in 2023 and 2024, UAB Sustainability is excited to bring this permanent solution to campus, Colpack says. “UAB Green Marketplace is a great way for our researchers to save money and keep unused items from going into landfills,” she explained.
Pyrch lab members Hannah Nolan and Kavitha Tamilarasan use a UV light acquired through the UAB Green Marketplace to read thin layer chromatography plates.
Sign up here
Faculty and staff can sign up for free accounts at uabgm.uab.edu, then search through items submitted by other UAB labs. They can also post their own unneeded items by category, quantity and date. (Moving the items is the responsibility of the acquiring lab.) Because additional items are being added all the time, “we encourage researchers to visit the Green Marketplace regularly to check to see if used items are available before purchasing new,” Colpack said.
Mason Bayles operates a roto-evaporator equipped with a rotovap flask (aka pear-shaped flask) that the Pyrch lab acquired through the UAB Green Marketplace.
“Essential and crucial lab supplies” — for free
The Comba Lab in the Department of Pathology has also saved more than $9,000 on a wide range of items through Green Marketplace, says Dilani Patel, researcher II and lab manager. “Green Labs and the UAB Green Marketplace has significantly helped the Comba Lab with providing essential and crucial lab supplies that we use on a daily basis,” Patel said.
Become a Green Lab
UAB Green Labs is a voluntary program, offered in collaboration between UAB Sustainability and UAB Environmental Health and Safety, that assists individual labs in implementing efficiency measures that reduce environmental and economic costs without sacrificing research quality, safety standards, or comfort and productivity of lab staff. Learn more about Green Labs and how your lab can join at uab.edu/sustainability/greenlab.
Andrea Comba, Ph.D., assistant professor in Pathology’s Division of Neuropathology, studies novel therapies for brain cancers. Since the Green Marketplace launched, the Comba Lab has acquired a stereomicroscope, beakers, cold storage graduated cylinders and flasks, an analytical balance, inoculation loops, surgical tools, biohazard bags, and much more.
“One major focus of our lab is examining and understanding how COL1A1 — Collagen Type 1 Alpha 1 — impacts the tumor microenvironment, tumor migration, tumor invasion, interactions with reactive astrocytes and different oncogenic signaling pathways associated with primary glioblastoma, or GBM,” Patel said. “Because of the equipment and supplies from the Green Marketplace, we have been able to generate GBM-inducing murine-derived neurosphere cell lines with high expression and knockdown of COL1A1 and generate mice tumor models with high expression and knockdown of COL1A1.”
Hannan Nolan operates a column in the Pyrch lab, with several pieces of glassware acquired through UAB Green Marketplace visible.
Help the Marketplace grow
The response from UAB researchers has been encouraging, says Sustainability Program Coordinator Shannon Harris, and turnover on the site tends to be rapid. “High-demand items and equipment can be claimed within hours of posting, making Green Marketplace a quick way to get rid of unneeded working materials,” Harris said. “And if you know someone who is going to retire soon, let us know at
“Inevitably, research labs end up with equipment that is functioning but no longer needed by us,” Pyrch added. “Instead of letting it gather dust, you can post it here and make another lab’s dreams come true.”
Visit the UAB Green Marketplace and email