In the years that Stellar Scientific has been serving the scientific community we've witnessed many changes.
Two stand-outs trends within the last five years are:
1. A significant increase in high-throughput activities
2. A heightened sensitivity towards careful resource management
As a result of this new focus on HTS (high throughput screening), we are seeing a dramatic increase in requests from research laboratories for items like 96-well plate readers for ELISA and other immunological testing, multichannel pipettes and pipette tips that are compatible with multi-channel pipettes.
The impact of reduced NIH spending has driven labs to share costly resources like expensive reagents, to shop for less expensive alternatives and maintain tighter controls and demand stricter planning of experiments.
One humble laboratory consumable that neatly intersects these two trends is the reagent reservoir, sometimes called a solution basin, side-car or lab-trough.
Early versions of the lab reservoir were simple containers that held a specific volume of solution which could be efficiently pipetted repeatedly.
As it became more important to recapture remaining precious drops of reagent, the design of the lab reservoir evolved to include a wide range of sizes and important features that are more than just cosmetic or convenient.
Today, Stellar Scientific offers a family of liquid handling reservoirs for all kinds of assay work and applications.
For molecular biology work, we offer reservoirs made from a thin polystyrene that is sturdy, yet flexible.
These solution basins all have a razor-sharp "V" base and pour-off spouts in each corner. This drives reagent to the bottom of the reservoir for precise liquid handling performance and makes it very easy to drain the contents back into a storage bottle.
Our reservoirs are available in three formats: Non-sterile, sterile/individually wrapped and sterile/5-pack wrapped.
Standard format reservoirs come in sizes 10mL, 25mL, 50mL and 100mL.
A nice feature of the 50mL sized reservoir is its compatibility with our Motley Cool PCR cold workstation.
Now you can keep your reagents chilled for up to 5 hours by slipping a 50mL reservoir over the "V" shaped section in the front.
When more precise reagent control is needed there are two specialty sized reservoirs in the line-up.
The AND-1 offers the greatest versatility and accommodates both 8-channel and 12-channel multi-channel pipettes depending on how much of the reservoir is used.
The new Aspire-8 is specially designed to accommodate just 8-channel pipettes further reducing the amount of reagent needed.
Working with DMSO and other organic solvents that require a more durable material?
In need of a liquid handling reservoir that is compatible with HTS robotic liquid handlers?
Consider one of several polypropylene solution reservoirs from CellTreat like this popular design:
When you are in need of thoughtfully designed laboratory consumables, Stellar Scientific has problem-solving lab supplies that will improve your enjoyment and productivity.