UNIVERSAL CONTAMINATION-PREVENTING PIPET TIPS FOR PCR

THE WORK WILL LEAD TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF DISPOSABLE PIPET TIPS FOR PRE-EXISTING ADJUSTABLE MICROPIPETTORS THAT WILL COMPLETELY PREVENT CARRY-OVER CONTAMINATION IN POLYMERASE CHAIN REACTION (PCR) GENE AMPLIFICATION WORK. THE TIPS WILL BE SIMILAR TO CURRENT TIPS IN THAT THEY WILL BE MANUFACTURED TO FIT ALL COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE PIPETTORS AND OFFERED AT A COST ONLY SLIGHTLY HIGHER THAN THE EXISTING TIPS. THIS ADAPTATION WILL ALSO BE USEFUL IN MANY LABORATORY PROCEDURES OTHER THAN PCR SUCH AS PIPETTING RADIOACTIVITY, ENZYMES AND NUCLEIC ACIDS; AVOIDING CONTAMINATION WITH THE SUBSTANCE BEING PIPETTED. IN PHASE I, MACCONNELL RESEARCH DEVISED A NEW CONCEPT FOR A CONTAMINATION-PREVENTING PIPET TIP THAT ALLOWS A NON-PERMEABLE BARRIER TO BE EVER PRESENT BETWEEN THE PIPETTOR AND SAMPLE FLUID. THIS PRODUCT CONCEPT WILL BE SUPERIOR IN BOTH PIPETTING PERFORMANCE AND ABILITY TO PREVENT CONTAMINATION WHEN COMPARED TO THE PERMEABLE BARRIER TIPS CURRENTLY BEING MARKETED. IN ADDITION, THE PRODUCT WILL BE LESS EXPENSIVE AND LESS WASTEFUL THAN THE POSITIVE DISPLACEMENT (DISPOSABLE PLUNGER) PIPETTING SYSTEMS CURRENTLY OFFERED. WE WILL DEVELOP THE NON-PERMEABLE BARRIER TIPS IN PHASE II, DURING WHICH EXTENSIVE EXPERIMENTATION WITH FLEXIBLE, THIN PLASTIC MOLDED BARRIERS WILL BE CARRIED OUT. THE COMPANY WILL WORK WITH AN EXPERIENCED BLOW MOLD FACILITY WHICH WILL GENERATE BOTH SINGLE PROTOTYPES AND PILOT SCALE MANUFACTURED PIECES TO BE TESTED IN OUR LABORATORIES.