Good Pipetting Practice Ensures the Success of your Research

Pipettes are an essential tool in life science research as the majority of experiments require the careful handling of precise volumes of liquid. Their accuracy and precision is therefore vital for producing good quality results.

To ensure the success of your research you need a good understanding of your liquid handling workflows and the equipment you need for each task. You need to consider how well your pipettes are maintained and what impact this could have, as well as your pipetting technique and if you are at risk of Repetitive Strain Injuries (RSI).

To help and advise you, Anachem with Rainin and Mettler Toledo has created Good Pipetting Practice (GPP). GPP is a specially developed five step programme comprised of risk analyses, educational materials and seminars. The series is designed to help you understand and reduce the risks involved in your workflow process for liquid handling and for you to improve the consistency of your results.

By implementing a Good Pipetting Practice programme in your laboratory everyone on your team will learn how to: carefully choose their pipetting instruments; optimise their liquid handling workflows; use the correct technique; recognise the risk associated with out-of-calibration pipettes and the role of routine checks.

A good place to start is www.mt.com/gpp where you can find out what your pipetting risk is with the Free GPP Risk Check tool. It is a confidential online tool that takes just five minutes to complete. Upon completion, a link is offered for a detailed analysis of your pipetting risks and practical tips on how to minimise them.

A specially-written white paper, ‘The Effect of Pipetting on Experiment Outcome’, examines scientific papers that have shown how pipetting errors affect experimental results and the importance of routine checks and proper maintenance.