Pipetting Applications in the Lab

Cells can be extremely sensitive and require careful care in the laboratory. They can react to rushed and harsh handling on the other hand but then again prolonged handling out of the incubator conditions can hinder their growth. This is why sample preparation should be thoroughly considered and planned from all angles including instrumentation and methods used to handle the cells for cell-based assays and other research.

To achieve success with cell-based systems good pipetting techniques are necessary to achieve even distribution of cells in cell seeding and to avoid foaming and bubble formation. Through the use of proper pipetting tools and good pipetting technique the inter-assay variance is reduced and reliability of results is improved.

Choose an electronic pipette and utilize the possibility to standardize pipetting steps including gentle mixing and absence of blowout. The Picus^® 2 relinquishes you from having to repetitively pipette up and down to mix and maintains a steady speed that does not disturb the cells. Choosing a multichannel pipette reduces both the time that cells are out of the incubator and for your sample preparation.

Pair your pipettes with Safetyspace^® Filter tips that can accommodate the full pipetting volume with all pipetting modes so you do not accidentally aspirate all the way to the filter.

We recommend Picus^® 2 10 µL for pipetting samples (Item no. LH-747021) and Picus^® 2 300 µL for sample preparation (Item no. LH-747061). Picus^® 2 1,200 µL 8 or 12 Channel electronic multichannel pipettes are perfect for seeding and feeding cells in a multiwell plate (Item no. LH-747391, LH-747491).

When working with cell cultures in T-Flask, it is essential to maintain the sterility of the cultures and prevent contamination. This can be challenging due to depth of T-flasks and unergonomic working environment of laminar flow cabinet.

Midi Plus allows you to easily perform media exchange of T-flask cell cultures. The flow rate can be adjusted to low which protects the sensitive cell types and prevents detachment of cells. Using the standing support of the device, Midi Plus can be placed on to table between dispensing without risking the contamination of the tip. 

Cell culture can easily be contaminated by, for example, Mycoplasma and spreading contamination pose a risk to the function of the entire laboratory. Cells are also sensitive to non-optimal conditions and the time that they are away from incubator should be minimized. 

Tacta^® pipettes are easy to clean and are fully autoclavable, which helps you to prevent contamination in cell culture work. Cross-contamination risk is minimized when Tacta^® is combined with Safetyspace^® Filter Tips. To reduce the time away from incubator in multiwell plate cell cultures, select the multichannel versions of the pipettes.

Microbiology is a broad study of bacteria, viruses, algae and other micro-organisms. With vast amount of applications in the different types of microbiology laboratories they all share the need to avoid contamination. Introducing unwanted strains from tools or solutions as well as allowing populations to mix in avertedly need to be avoided. 

Aseptic working methods and sterilized labware are commonplace. Laboratories will find fully autoclavable pipettes and pipetting controllers that can be fitted with sterile filters practical and convenient. Tacta^® and Proline^® Plus pipette can be autoclaved as without disassembly and a replaceable filter can be used with the Midi Plus for protection in case of over aspiration.

Choose pre-sterilized Optifit tips for your pipettes and your labwork will not have to wait for the autoclave. Safetyspace^® filter tips bring you another level of protection for when you want to be absolutely sure.

Nucleic acid amplification through Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is used for quantification, detection and isolation in many fields and it is a common diagnostic method. Many applications include DNA amplification with a thermally stable DNA polymerase for downstream analysis or it can be coupled with fluorescent dyes or probes to allow for real time quantification (qPCR or real time PCR). It can also be used to study RNA when coupled with a reverse transcriptase step in so called reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR).

qPCR is usually performed on a 96 or 384 format either on a plate or in reaction tubes in reaction volumes ranging from 10-50 µL. Experiment preparation starts with mixing the reaction solution i.e. the enzyme and reaction buffer together creating the so-called Master Mix. After dispensing the Master Mix into the reaction vessels, followed with samples and controls. This makes PCR experiments very pipetting heavy and optimally multichannel pipettes are used to dispense the Master Mix. Multi dispensing the master mix and the sample replicates with an electronic pipette can help save experiment setup times.

Cross-contamination prevention is especially important in PCR making use of filter tips to reduce aerosol transmission commonplace.

As the pipetted volumes are small and PCR reagents and enzyme solutions usually contain glycerol, the reverse pipetting technique helps with accurate and precise dispensing. Choose Safetyspace^®  Filter Tips that can accommodate the full pipetting volume with reverse pipetting.

• Use Picus^® 2 0.5-10 µL single channel or multichannel pipette for dispensing samples (Item no. LH-747021, LH-747321, LH-747421), 
• Picus^® 2 5-120 µL single channel or multichannel pipette for dispensing samples or master mix (Item no. LH-747041, LH-747341, LH-747441), 
• Picus^® 2 10-300 µL single channel or multichannel pipette for dispensing master mix (Item no. LH-747061, LH-747361, LH-747461), 
• Picus^® 2 50-1,000 µL for master mix preparation (Item No. LH-747081). Match your pipette with the corresponding volume Safetyspace^® Filter Tips.

In laboratory work of chemical industry it is sometimes challenging to continuously achieve reliable results when the instruments are challenged by the aggressiveness of the chemicals.

Choose instruments that produce reliable results and are easily kept clean such as the chemically resistant bottle-top dispensers and Tacta^® or Proline^®  Plus pipettes.

The bottle support saves you from unwanted surprises of toppling over bottles and spilling of chemicals.

The chemically resistant Optifit tips ensure accurate results with the Proline^®  Plus pipette. As pure polypropylene tips the Optifit tips do not influence even the most sensitive analyses by introducing ghost peaks or leachables. 

For manufacturers of food and beverages, safety comes first. To ensure the high quality of your products, the right analyses are needed to ensure the microbiological safety and even high quality of products.

Choose instruments that produce reliable results and are easily kept clean such as the fully autoclavable Tacta^® and Proline^®  Plus pipettes so you can be sure your pipettes do not spread contamination. 

The Midi Plus Pipetting Controller is ideal for dispensing larger volumes and with it you can protect yourself from accidental over aspiration hazardous solutions by equipping it with a replaceable filter.

Industrial cannabis testing laboratories test samples for safety and to control for product quality. Common analytical tests include THC, CBD and terpene measurements or profiling and for product safety residual solvents, heavy metals and pesticides are screened with most common methods being HPLC, GC or different mass spectrometry methods.

As the labs handle multiple different chemicals it is important to choose chemically resistant equipment that are simple to maintain like Tacta^® or Picus^® pipettes. These pipettes are also easy to adjust to account for the specific liquid properties when preparing standards. Remember also to ensure that your plastic consumables do not affect the sensitive analyses. You can enforce this by accompanying your pipettes with Optifit tips that also ensure that you achieve the best pipetting performance when used with Tacta^® or Picus^® 2. 

Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) is used for detecting and quantifying soluble biomolecules such as proteins and nucleic acids. ELISA relies on specific antibody-antigen interactions and this immunoassay is widely used in e.g. immunology, microbiology, and pharmacology fields. ELISA is also common in clinical laboratories. For quantification, ELISA relies on standard solutions which preparation involves serial dilution steps. Diluting samples is also often required in order for them to be within the concentration range of the standards. 

Multichannel Tacta^® and especially Picus^® 2 pipettes are practical and allow for saving time during when filling multi well plates. Optimizing and standardizing sample preparation is easy with Picus^® 2 which allows for saving most common settings into memory. To achieve reproducible results choose Optifit tips that are the designed pair for Tacta^® and Picus^® 2 pipettes.

In mass spectrometry contaminations such as keratins and PEG can cause contamination peaks and hamper the results. Keratin contaminations commonly come from lab environment and PEG from pipettes that have been used in pipetting detergent like Tween and Triton-X.

The best way to avoid contamination is to use pipettes dedicated to mass spectrometry sample preparation and should not be shared with other workflows. 

Resealable single tray tips are protected from keratin that can be shed from clothing. The leachable free Optifit tips ensure accurate chromatograms and will not influence your results.