College sues for damages, saying cleaner turned off lab freezer and destroyed research

TROY, N.Y. (AP) — Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute says in a $1 million lawsuit that a cleaner who switched off power to a lab freezer containing cell samples and cultures destroyed more than 20 years of research. RPI is seeking damages from Daigle Cleaning Systems, claiming one of its employees turned off the circuit breaker for the freezer in September 2020. The lawsuit says graduate researchers at the university in Troy, New York, discovered the freezer was off the next day and tried the mitigate the damage, but most specimens were damaged. A call seeking comment was made the cleaning company.