The importance of understanding and developing an optimal pipetting technique is needed as to work in life science laboratory with accuracy and precision. Here we list few techniques intended to improve a persons pipetting skills to ensure the most accurate test results.
1. Avoid holding pipette when not in use: As the pipette is hold in hands for long and while not in use, heat from body by thermal transfer and outside pressure can effect precision of the pipette.
2. Pipette tip installation: Use consistent force on tip during installation to ensure proper and similar fit each time.
3. Controlled plunger handling: Plunger release and handling must be controlled and slow to avoid air bubble formation during process of aspiring solutions.
4. Pre-wet pipette tips: Pre-wetting of tips increases humidity within thus reduce sample evaporation which could lead to variation in sample volume. Before aspiring sample, aspirate and expel any liquid at least three times.
5. Tip aspiration and dispensing angles: To maintain accuracy, aspiration must be at 90 degrees while dispensing must be at 45 degrees. The suggested angles ensure proper liquid aspiration and dispense to avoid any residue.
6. Aspiration of liquids & solutions: To aspire liquids and solutions, put tips just below liquid surface to ensure no air enters the tips as the level of liquid goes down during aspiration.
7. Dispensing liquid to vials: During dispensing liquid, the liquid must be dispense against side of container or into the liquid already in the container. Avoid squirting liquid into air which may lead to contamination or loss due to evaporation. Ensure all the liquid is dispense off the tip and touch off at the very end of the container to release the last drop.
8. Pause consistently after aspiration: During aspiration, wait for a second with tip still in the liquid to ensure accurate volume of the liquid reaches the tip. A while after plunger is stop of the moment, it takes for the liquid to occupy space in the tip. so failure to do so will cause the volume to be too low.
9. Appropriate Pipette as per the need: To increase accuracy of Pipetting use pipette closest to the volume required to be dispense. Example: To pipette 10ul, 10 ul or 20ul pipette would help with more accuracy as compared to 1ml pipette.
10. Use appropriate tips: It is advice to use RNase free tips to handle RNA sample and filter tips to handle viral samples.
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