Transfer disc

BactoBox® measures bacteria in liquid suspension. A Vitroids™ disc is solid. Therefore you must first solubilize the disc. The below video demonstrates the procedure and all the details are provided in the Step by step instructions.

Bacteria can only be in BactoBox® diluent for short durations.

In this tutorial we use diluent from a Dilution vial to solubilize the bacteria in the disc. The diluent provides excellent differentiation of cells from other objects. On the flip side it is hypotonic and cells may lyse if stored in the diluent. Always complete measurements within 15 minutes after dilution in BactoBox® diluent.

Transfer of Vitroid™ disc to diluent for initial solubilization.

Step by step

1

Label a vial

Find a small vial, for example a 1.5 mL Eppendorf vial.

Use a marker to label the vial E. coli.

2

Prepare a solubilization vial

Use a P200 pipette to transfer 110 µL of Dilution vial to the small vial.

Preferably use the gamma-sterilized ready-to-use Dilution vial instead of DIY versions of the BactoBox® diluent.

3

Transfer Vitroids™ disc to vial

Uncap the Vitroids™ vial and hold it over the mound of the small vial. Tap the Vitroids™ vial until the disc is transferred to the small vial. Cap the small vial tightly.

4

Discard the opened dilution vial

Discard the dilution vial that you used to retrieve 110 µL BactoBox® diluent.

The Dilution vial is no longer sterile and does not contain the required 10 mL volume.

Summary

You have now prepared for the solubilization of the Vitroid™ disc. The disc would dissolve by itself within 5 minutes, but in the next page we will speed up this process by vortexing. This will also disaggregate clumps of bacteria. Proceed to Prepare sample for further instructions.