07 Mar 5 Things I wish I knew when I was a wet lab scientist: Devices I did not know existed!
Have you ever found yourself lost in a repetitive lab task, wishing for a tool that could save you time and effort? I’ve been there too. In this short article, I will talk about two game-changing devices I wish I had known about during my time in the research laboratory.
The repeater pipette: Saving time on micro scale
Repeated aliquoting – my dreaded task, brainless and time consuming. To distribute 100 mL of liquid culture of competent E. coli DH5α, 400 µL in each tube, I had to go back and forth with my single channel pipette 250 times. Had I known a repeater pipette existed, it would have made my day so much easier. What a repeater pipette does, it allows to aspirate a large volume and then distribute the liquid in smaller portions, pre-set by the user, to the destination tubes. It works with a single use plastic syringe that is attached to the pipette and creates a positive displacement system as opposed to an air displacement system in regular micropipettes. This means that there is no risk for the solution to get inside the inner mechanism of the instrument to contaminate it. Moreover, the syringes are available in a sterile version so your culture is also safe, and that you can also use it for aliquoting viscous solutions. A cherry on the top is that its price is only slightly higher than a regular 1 mL pipette. So simple!
The bottle-top dispenser: Efficiency in milli scale
Another item worth bringing up and which I haven’t found particularly popular in research laboratories, is a dispenser – a device to repeatedly distribute millilitre scale volumes. Why would it be useful? If you are a microbiologist doing screens or evolutionary experiments, probably you have to set up dozens of bacterial cultures in different media almost every day. To do so, instead of using a pipette helper and a serological pipette, I would recommend you try a bottle-top dispenser – your media is in the bottle, you fix the dispenser on the top, prime the system (to make sure there are no air bubbles that could compromise the dosing precision) and install an extension tubing to reach the army of tubes you prepared in a rack to grow your bacteria in. No need to worry about contamination as the Calibrex from Socorex is autoclavable (also when fully assembled!). Other uses? Diluting TAE or TBE buffer for running agarose gels, buffers for protein purification, dispensing other chemicals routinely used in the lab...
How to find THE tool?
Honestly, often the device that can make your life easier already exists on the market, you just need to find it. This is what manufacturers do – they think about solutions that address the needs of the customers. Unfortunately, sometimes there is a lag or disconnect between the user and manufacturer (and often several intermediaries...). How to find the solutions that you didn’t know you needed? Browse the internet, visit company stands during conferences, explore laboratory trade shows happening near you... Running experiments is important, but working smarter not harder is the key to success. Do not let the tangible slow you down.
By Anna Anchimiuk, PhD
Product Manager for small liquid handling devices and a scientist at heart. With profound background in microbiology, biochemistry, and molecular biology, Anna leverages her global lab experience to help users fully understand and utilize their laboratory instruments for optimal results.
