Molecular Biology Lab Exercise Instructions PDF

EXERCISE INSTRUCTIONS 1 - MOLECULAR BIOLOGY / Faculty of Medicine/ Academy of Silesia / Sem. 1 / 2024/25 Exercise no. 1. Organization of exercises. Course credit rules. Rules of work in the laboratory (safety and health rules). THEORETICAL PART A student learns the basic devices used to conduct re...

EXERCISE INSTRUCTIONS 1 - MOLECULAR BIOLOGY / Faculty of Medicine/ Academy of Silesia / Sem. 1 / 2024/25 Exercise no. 1. Organization of exercises. Course credit rules. Rules of work in the laboratory (safety and health rules). THEORETICAL PART A student learns the basic devices used to conduct research in the laboratory during classes in molecular biology. Basic principles of working with automatic pipettes An automatic pipette is a special type of measuring pipette and is primarily used for quick measuring small volumes of liquid - usually not larger than 1 ml. It has a mechanism consisting of a piston with a spring, a handle, a regulator and a replaceable tip. The tips are usually made of Teflon or polyethylene. The measured liquid is collected only to the tip, by means of a plunger, which, after being released, is pushed out by a spring and sucks in a precisely defined amount of liquid. The regulator is a precise limiter of the stroke of the piston. It takes the form of a knob with a volume scale. The adjustment range is indicated on the intake button and colour coded. Fixed-capacity or multi-channel versions are also produced. Some models have the ability to automatically remove the tip. The setpoint range by colours on the intake button Blue covers the range from 100 to 1000 µl 1 = 1000 µl 0 = 100 µl 0 1 0 0 Yellow covers the range from 10 to 100 µl 1 = 100 µl 0 = 10 µl 0 1 0 0 Page 1 of 6  EXERCISE INSTRUCTIONS 1 - MOLECULAR BIOLOGY / Faculty of Medicine/ Academy of Silesia / Sem. 1 / 2024/25 Red covers the range from 0,5 to 10 µl 1 = 10 µl 0 = 0,5 µl 0 0 0 5 Basic tips for accurate pipetting 1. Wetting the pipette tip Before pipetting, it is recommended to rinse the tip several times with the pipetted liquid. This is especially important when pipetting viscous liquids and liquids with a density other than water. 2. Holding the pipette in an upright position The pipette tip should be immersed in the sample at an angle as close to vertical as possible, so that its deviation does not exceed 20 degrees. Otherwise, too much liquid will be sucked into the tip, resulting in measurement inaccuracy. Pipette position is especially important when dispensing small volumes (