Monday, November 29, 2010

Lab news - fixes and PCRs

Today we have quitely marked an important milestone. Itsik and Ami from the "fine mechanics shop" came to fix the Microscope, HyperCyt and KiNEDx rail to the tables. This means that from now we can assume that their relative positions with respect to each other are fixed (and thus the KiNEDx arm can return to the same position reliably). This is also an indication that we are happy with the temporary outline of devices we put down.

We were warned about the difficulties in drilling in the Terspa benchtop we have. It turned out that with a simple drill it was relatively easy to have holes in the benchtop. 

  
Ami threaded the holes, and then screwed in the equipment.


The HyperCyt is held in place by three machined blocks (two in front and one in the back). The Microscope had its holders that allow for screwing into the table and into the microscope body.


Finally the KiNEDx rail has holes in the rail itself, and it was screwed directly into the benchtop without external holders.

While Itsik and Ami worked in the Robotic room, we received a package.


Our new PCR thermocyclers. We got a deal on a pair of devices from Bio-Rad that combine 96-well head with two 48-well heads under a single controller. This was one of the missing large equipment on our "to get" list.

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