Team:UNIPV-Pavia/Material Methods/Instruments

From 2010.igem.org

INSTRUMENTS




Contents

AUTOCLAVE

An autoclave is a device to sterilize equipment and supplies by subjecting them to high pressure saturated steam at 121°C or more, typically for 15 to 20 minutes depending on the size of the load and the contents. It was invented by Charles Chamberland in 1879, although a precursor known as the steam digester was created by Denis Papin in 1679. The name comes from Greek auto, ultimately meaning self, and Latin clavis meaning key — a self-locking device.

Autoclave


INCUBATOR FOR PLATES

This is a oven in which plates are kept at 37 C to grow bacteria.

Incubator for plates


INCUBATOR AND SHAKER FOR LIQUID CULTURES

This is a oven where bacteria are kept to grow. In this case you can define temperature and rpm.

Incubator and shaker for liquid cultures


HOOD

It is a laminar flow hood for handling highly toxic products.

Hood


WATER BATH

It is a bath in which water is heated to high temperatures for gel extraction and heath shock during bacterial transformation.

Water bath


INSTRUMENTS FOR ELECTROPHORESIS

Gel electrophoresis apparatus - Agarose gel is placed in this TBE buffer filled box and electrical field is applied via the power supply to the rear. The negative terminal is the black one while the positive is the red one. In this way DNA, that is naturally negatively charged, migrates to the positive pole.

Instruments for electrophoresis


GEL IMAGE ACQUISITION SYSTEM

It is a UV system with camera used to acquire gel run snapshots.

Gel image acquisition system


COLD INSTRUMENTS

We have freezers where Dna and bacterial cultures are stocked. In particular we have two -20 C freezers to stock DNA and one -80 C freezer to stock bacteria.
We have also a fridge to stock plates and LB medium

Freezer
Fridge


NANODROP ND 1000 spectrophotometer

Nanodrop is a really helpfull instrument used to measure concentration of DNA in a micro-volume of sample and OD in cell cultures.

Nanodrop


TECAN Infinite 2000

Tecan Infinite F200 is a multifunctional microplate filter-based reader with injector option, that provides high performance for the vast majority of microplate applications and research. It has been designed as a general purpose laboratory instrument for professional use, supporting common 6 to 384-well microplates. This instrument allows long incubation of the microplate, the chance to set the shaking movements, the duration of all operations, including cycles, and the dispensation of liquid material in the wells. These actions are managed by a user interface operated by i-Control software, ranging from scheduling experiments to the cleaning of injectors. We used this instrument for the following measurement techniques:

  • fluorescence intensity;
  • absorbance.
TECAN Infinite 2000


BACTERIA ROOM AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY ROOM

The Molecular Biology room is the place in which we treat DNA.
The Bacteria room is the place in which we work with bacteria. In this room the temperature is 37°C for growth of bacterial culture.

Bacteria room
Molecular biology room