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Starting your own biolab: Difference between revisions
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* Glasses or goggles | * Glasses or goggles | ||
* Disposable gloves. We use nitrile gloves. In addition to preventing contamination of your hands with your sample, nitrile gloves can be disinfected to prevent contamination of your sample. | * Disposable gloves. We use nitrile gloves. In addition to preventing contamination of your hands with your sample, nitrile gloves can be disinfected to prevent contamination of your sample. | ||
=== Centrifuge === | |||
Separates immiscible liquids, or separates solid from liquid. We mostly use microcentrifuges, which take PCR tubes and spin at a maximum of about 13000 RPM (though lower speeds, and larger centrifuges, are fine for many protocols if that's all you have). | |||
High-speed centrifuges can be very dangerous and should be treated with respect. | |||
=== Thermal cycler === | === Thermal cycler === | ||
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[[Project:Gel_electrophoresis_box|Our first electrophoresis set-up was home-made]], using laser-cut acrylic gel boxes and standard laboratory variable-output power supplies. | [[Project:Gel_electrophoresis_box|Our first electrophoresis set-up was home-made]], using laser-cut acrylic gel boxes and standard laboratory variable-output power supplies. | ||
We do agarose gel electrophoresis. See below for information on agarose. | |||
=== Visualiser === | === Visualiser === | ||
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To prevent contamination of samples. These force air through a HEPA filter onto the sample in a laminar flow, ensuring that the only air touching the sample is filtered. Flow hoods additionaly create a closed cycle of air, preventing aerosolised samples from contaminating the rest of the lab. Our current flow cabinet is home-made. We have plans to turn it into a [[Project:Flow_Hood|flow hood]]. | To prevent contamination of samples. These force air through a HEPA filter onto the sample in a laminar flow, ensuring that the only air touching the sample is filtered. Flow hoods additionaly create a closed cycle of air, preventing aerosolised samples from contaminating the rest of the lab. Our current flow cabinet is home-made. We have plans to turn it into a [[Project:Flow_Hood|flow hood]]. | ||
=== Refrigerator and freezer === | |||
Storing reagents and bacteria in a fridge or freezer keeps them viable for longer. We currently use standard mini fridges (at 4 C) and mini freezers (at around -20 C). A -80 C freezer is the best option for long-term storage, but these are large and expensive both to buy and to run, so we don't use one. | |||
=== Incubator === | |||
Incubators maintain a constant temperature and are ideal for growing bacterial colonies (among other things). If you are planning on culturing in liquid media (such as lb broth) you should look for a shaking incubator, which has a shaking platform to keep the liquid moving. If you are culturing in petri dishes shaking is not necessary. | |||
Our first incubator was home-made from an ice box, an Arduino, a temperature sensor, and a heat lamp. Current incubators are donated. | |||
== Reagents and disposables == | == Reagents and disposables == | ||
