Scenario: You need to balance your sample tubes for ultracentrifugation.
Application: Preparative ultracentrifugation is a high-velocity centrifuge used in the separation of small submicroscopic particles. This process requires an ultracentrifuge machine to rotate rapidly, at extreme high speeds, to generate enough centrifugal force to separate the solution. This force will magnify any slight weight differences within the spinning samples.
The struggle: It’s critical to properly balance your sample loads to avoid uneven distribution of weight that can cause rotor damage, uncontrolled heavy vibration, or other imbalance errors. Typically, samples are weighed in tubes and volumes adjusted while using a scale to balance the samples in the tubes in the rotor buckets that will be directly opposite each other in the centrifuge. Weighing and balancing in this way can be tedious and time consuming.
Lab relief tip: ali-Q 2 can help save time when you need accurate repeat dispenses.
How ali-Q 2 helped Dr. Cherrie Sherman, Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai:
…I use an ultracentrifuge machine to isolate samples such as virus particles and extracellular vesicles a lot. Ultracentrifuge machines are extremely sensitive. Therefore, you need a perfect balance between your loaded samples. So, I normally weigh the ultracentrifuge tubes containing my samples to make sure that I won’t have any balance issue. With the help of ali-Q 2, I stopped weighing my tubes. Once, I literally weighed the tubes containing my samples after using ali-Q 2, and they weighed almost exactly the same. Almost perfectly balanced, just the difference of 0.01 to 0.02 grams, which is totally tolerable by an ultracentrifuge machine…I do a lot of ultracentrifugation. So, ali-Q 2 helps me save a lot of time.”
The ali-Q’s innovative and unique technology provides superior accuracy and precision for any repeat pipetting need. The reproducibility of each multi-dispense, without the need to watch the lines on the serological pipet, provides a solution for faster and easier liquid transfer unlike any other pipetter. The benefit is well documented for tedious tasks such as media prep (aliquoting reagents and making agar plates) and cell culture (plating and feeding cells). However, ali-Q can help save precious time in the lab anytime you need accuracy and repeatability of dispenses.
About the scientist:
Cherrie Sherman completed her postdoctoral fellowship in Cardiovascular Regenerative Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. Her work was on cyclin A2-based gene therapy and CDX2 placental-derived stem cells as therapeutics for cardiac regeneration and to restore cardiac function for people who had myocardial infarction.
