*blink* Wow.

[amethyst73]

I have just received  a protocol from another lab, which involves transferring materials from one 96-well block to another.  (For non-wetlab types, these are blocks with 96 tiny little bowls in it, in which the 'bowls' - or, more properly, wells - are arrayed in a 12x8 grid.)  There's a neat gadget called a multiwell pipettor that allows you to pick up a set volume from 8 or 12 of these wells at the same time, for dispensing into a second block. 

I kid you not, here's what the protocol says about transferring the stuff from one block to another.
---------------
Pipette first column/row.
DISCARD tips.
Pipette second column/row.
DISCARD tips.
Etc…
Until plate is complete.
----------------
Um.  Duh.  If you don't change tips between rows, then you're going to contaminate later wells with the little bits of liquid that always get left behind from the earlier rows.  There are people who need to have this clarified???

Comments

[emilymorgan.livejournal.com]

*laughs really hard* Well, maybe a really sleep-deprived baby research assistant?

Also, a multiwell pipettor sounds like the best thing ever.

[cookie107.livejournal.com]

I work in an Enzymology lab at a Pharmaceutical company, and sadly, yes, you have to specify this. You'd be saddened at what I have to put into an SOP that we are sending to an outsource lab--things like "please don't use tap water in the reaction".

The best thing about working for a company after grad school is the fact that now I have 96-channel pipettors--I can transfer the whole ting in one shot!

[amethyst73.livejournal.com]

*laughs really hard* Well, maybe a really sleep-deprived baby research assistant?
Well, they musta had someone at some point who DIDN'T change tips, which is why they put it into the protocol.

Multichannel pipets are pretty cool. Here's (http://www.rainin.com/products/class_list.asp?main=pipette&sub=3) Rainin's page with the standard 8- and 12-channel pipettors. But see the other comment - there's even more coolness available!

[amethyst73.livejournal.com]

Wow. The 96-well pipettor sounds truly awesome!