My mama used to tell me “you learn something new everyday”. That certainly seems to be the case for me, even after almost 10 years as Manager of SeqGen.
The clever ideas I hear from our talented group of engineers never ceases to amaze me! Just the other day, James was sharing with me about the tips he gives our customers so that they can reduce their expenditure on polymer.
For our 3130 and 3730 end users, POP 7 polymer can take a huge bite out of the budget if the bottle is replaced on a weekly basis as recommended by the manufacturer. Did you know that you can recycle your old, used up polymer bottles and pipette a smaller aliquot of POP 7 into them? Simply rinse out your used bottles thoroughly with deionized water and then make sure they are completely dry. You can then pipette the amount of POP7 you will be using for that week into the older bottle. Make sure to allow the polymer to come to room temperature before placing on your sequencer to avoid the formation of bubbles.
Our 3130 end users can also use this technique, purchase the larger 28ml bottles of POP 7, and pipette the aliquot they need into their clean 3130 polymer bottles.
If these cost saving tips are still not sufficient to stretch your budget, there are alternate vendors that sell compatible polymers. Give us a shout and we can share our experience and recommendations!
