The simple plastic transfer pipette remains an essential tool in research, industrial and clinical laboratories
Despite the rapid advancement of technology in scientific fields, the simple plastic transfer pipette remains an essential tool in research, industrial and clinical laboratories, for the easy and safe transfer of liquids. Evolving from the traditional glass Pasteur pipette and rubber bulb, first used in the 1940’s, modern polypropylene single piece pipettes, such as the renowned, high quality Pastette, remain a convenient and cost-effective solution for an extensive range of liquid handling applications.
Developed to meet the demands of scientific and medical applications
These disposable transfer pipettes have been developed to meet the demands of various scientific and medical applications. Available in a variety of sizes and styles, they are designed for the controlled transfer of liquids in general liquid handling and also more specialised procedures. They provide precision, safety, convenience, and versatility. Sterile and non-sterile options cater to both general laboratory use and sensitive applications in microbiology or medical environments.
In clinical environments transfer pipettes have many functions, from handling a variety of patient samples, small volume drop work, to preparing slides for analysis. The fine tip and controllable bulb make them ideal for dispensing into sampling cups, without creating bubbles that can disrupt the efficiency of the analyser. They have multiple uses in blood sciences. The narrow stem fits tubes and donor bag tubing and allows calibrated transfers through graduations and controlled drop size.
Bob Jones of the Department of Microbiology and Infection Control at Victoria Hospital, Kirkcaldy has been using Pastettes since the 1980s, after moving on from homemade glass ones (quite a tricky and dangerous practice). He says “Working in a microbiology laboratory, transfer pipettes are used in abundance for many things. Jumbo Pastettes are ideal for removing sediment from early morning urine for TB examination. Fine Tip Pastettes are used for filling cell counting chambers with CSF. The serology section is probably the biggest user, transferring serum and plasma from centrifuged blood containers into tubes and vials.”
Self test and point of care
For self-test and Point of Care (POC) diagnostic kits, where users may not have experience of exact volume pipetting, there are disposable pipettes that will dispense a precise measure of liquid. They offer foolproof simplicity – simply squeeze the upper bulb to fill and squeeze again to dispense the exact volume required for the test.
Pastettes are extensively used in cell culture laboratories for transferring culture media, reagents, and cells between containers. Their disposable nature eliminates the risk of cross-contamination between samples. In stem cell research, where delicate cells are handled, the flexible tips of Pastettes help ensure that cells are not damaged during transfer. There are even bulbless aspirator Pastettes that can be used with all types of Pipette Aid devices to aspirate and dispense media and reagents. They are ideal for drawing off media from culture flasks and are safer to use than traditional glass or polystyrene pipettes. Being flexible and soft they also protect the cell cultures. They offer the best choice for delicate and valuable cell lines and are a ‘must have’ for work with infectious and hazardous materials.
Valuable tool for sample preparation
Even in industrial research and testing laboratories Pastettes are a valuable tool for tasks such as sample preparation for: LC, GC, HPLC, TLC using 1ml auto sampler vials. Robertet, a leading supplier of fragrances, flavours, and natural raw materials, uses transfer pipettes in the applications laboratory, where they formulate trial batches of fragrances that are under development. They work to very precise formulations, occasionally using up to 70 different raw materials for each trial batch. These components are often very expensive, and they cannot afford to waste any, so the accuracy of dispensing is essential. They have found that the 1ml graduated Pastette provides the precision needed for this task.
So, while your laboratory may continue to be enhanced by the addition of increasingly sophisticated equipment, there will always be a place for the multipurpose, humble plastic pipette.
Find out more at: www.pasteur-pipette.com
