Optimise Large Volume Transfers with Biomek P1000 Span-8 Pipette Tips

Beckman Coulter, Inc. has introduced two new types of Biomek P1000 Span-8 pipette tips for the company's Biomek NXP and FXP Laboratory Automation Workstations. A clear, non-conductive P1000 Span-8 Tip and a P1000 Span-8 Wide Bore Tip are now offered in addition to the current Biomek P1000 Span-8 Conductive Tip.

The Biomek P1000 Span-8 Tip will allow users to visually inspect aspirated volumes during method development. Sample preparation times can be reduced by transferring a full 1 mL of sample or reagent in a single pipetting action without having to split volumes. This is useful for large-volume media transfer in "seed and feed" cellular applications.

The new P1000 Span-8 Wide Bore Pipette Tip offers a larger orifice, which facilitates pipetting of viscous liquids such as glycerol solutions or of samples with large particulates, which can clog standard tips. These tips are helpful in library construction and bead enrichment during sample preparation for next generation sequencing, in which viscous reagents such as the bead mixture are pipetted in large volumes.

In addition, using wide bore tips can minimize DNA shearing during nucleic-acid preparation and reduce the risk of inadvertent cell lysis when pipetting fragile cell suspensions such as hybridomas or large-cell aggregates such as embryoid bodies for stem cell research.

The current Biomek P1000 Span-8 Conductive Tip enables the liquid-level sensing capability of the Biomek system to automatically sense the sample or reagent in deep-well plates or tubes, so users do not have to specify volumes. Cross-contamination is minimized by reducing the exterior wetted surface of the tip by pipetting from the top of the liquid rather than from the bottom of the tube or plate.

"The addition of these two new Biomek P1000 Span-8 Tips now offers customers more choices for large volume transfers," noted Jerome Lim, marketing product manager at Beckman Coulter. "They will provide productivity benefits to scientists in a range of applications, even those working with cellulose slurry for bio-fuels or bio-energy research."

To optimize workflow efficiency, validated support is provided by an import file containing tip definitions, pipetting techniques and templates; tip information in the labware library of Biomek software is automatically populated. The actual colors of the tip racks are captured in Biomek software, speeding method development by minimizing potential errors in tip selection and Biomek deck set-up.