The Tip of the Iceberg – How Pipette Tips Influence Results

Lab Academy 22. avril 2016

• Biotechnologie
• Pipetage et distribution
• Amplification et PCR
• Justesse
• Pipettes
• Pointes de pipette
• Test

When was the last time you were upset about non-reproducible results, for example in a real-time PCR? You checked all the variables in your experiment but were still unable to find the cause? During pipetting (the most frequent step in any experimental process) you always used a pipette with a "fitting" tip-thus a system made up to two components, the precision and accuracy of which you thought you could rely on during the whole workflow. But perhaps you could not! Perhaps at this stage of your experiment you see "The tip of an iceberg", which hides below the line several sources of errors resulting in how pipette tips influence results, because the fact that a tip fits onto a pipette cone does not say anything about the performance of the pipetting system comprising the components "Pipette and tip".