New Pipette Tips Optimise Large Volume Transfers

Beckman Coulter, Inc introduces two new 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 and instil confidence during method development. Sample preparation times can be reduced by transferring a full 1mL 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 minimise DNA shearing during nucleicacid 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 minimised 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.

To optimise 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 colours of the tip racks are captured in Biomek software, speeding method development by minimising potential errors in tip selection and Biomek deck set-up.