Streamlining Cell Cultures With INTEGRA's VACUSAFE To Advance Respiratory Health Research

Researchers at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Australia, rely on the VACUBOY vacuum hand operator and VACUSAFE aspiration system from INTEGRA Biosciences to aid their research into respiratory health. These tools enable the team to quickly and gently perform media aspirations and plate washing for cell cultures, speeding up critical research into lung diseases.

Dr Madison Coward-Smith is a lecturer in the ImmunoPharmacology Research Group (IPRG) at the UTS School of Life Sciences, and co-supervises PhD student Jessica Tolentino. Their current research focuses on the effects of maternal exposures to factors such as air pollution and third hand e-vape fumes on offspring immune cell responses to respiratory viral challenge. The IPRG team performs large numbers of plaque assays to test viral titers and uses INTEGRA’s VACUBOY vacuum hand operator and VACUSAFE aspiration system to rapidly remove varying volumes of media and wash delicate monolayer cultures. This avoids the need to perform this time-consuming and strenuous task manually with a heavy serological pipet for up to 60 plates or 25 culture flasks at a time inside a biosafety cabinet.

Madison explained the benefits of INTEGRA’s products: “Working in a biosafety cabinet isn't the most ergonomic thing in the world, but the VACUBOY is much lighter and more ergonomic than the tools I have used previously. Together with the VACUSAFE, this has been incredibly helpful, making aspirations and plate washing much faster, easier and more comfortable. Washing a plate now takes only 10-15 seconds, rather than a full minute. This set-up is incredibly straightforward and user friendly, and the VACUSAFE alerts you when the bottle is full, so we don’t have to worry about overfilling it and risking contamination or damage. We all rely on the system quite heavily in the lab.”

Visit the INTEGRA Biosciences website to learn more.

About INTEGRA Biosciences

INTEGRA Biosciences (www.integra-biosciences.com) is a leading provider of high-quality laboratory tools and consumables for liquid handling. The company is committed to creating innovative solutions which fulfil the needs of its customers in research, diagnostics and quality control within the life sciences markets and medical sector. INTEGRA's portfolio also encompasses next-generation sequencing (NGS) solutions, with automated workflows and magnetic bead-based reagents for reliable NGS sample preparation. INTEGRA's engineering and production teams in Zizers, Switzerland and Hudson, NH, USA, strive to develop and manufacture instruments and consumables of outstanding quality. Today, INTEGRA's innovative laboratory products are widely used all around the world where they help scientists accelerate scientific discovery. INTEGRA is an ISO 9001 certified company.