How to cut cost in a molecular biolog lab? - Please share your experience (Sep/23/2004 )
Your lab could be different, but here in the UK unless we are doing REALLY expensive experiments I have found that often money saving ideas tend to waste time and that the biggest bill is actually wages. Work out how much the staff cost per day and then decide how effecive your cost saving measures are against that (I was surprized).
That said I have found that looking at the sources of your consumerables and changing surpliers can save lots of money. Contact the local reps and push them abit, they usually have some room to reduce their prices.
good luck.
I have also been in the position when grants run out of bartering consumerables with other labs.
Here is another way of cutting lab cost - to reuse TAE buffer and even reuse the gel.
http://www.protocol-online.org/forums/inde...?showtopic=4972
Get quotes from sales reps. You would be amazed at how much money you can save this way. If you have a sales rep from a company, just make a spreadsheet of what you want to order and e-mail it to them. Even if you don't have a rep, try e-mailing the customer service address from the website. I almost always do this for orders of more than a few things. Be sure to mention it if you are a non-profit, academic or government institution, as many vendors have special deals. If a vendor won't give you a deal, don't use them unless you have to. Keep in mind that you should order in advance, since they may take a day or two to respond. Also, it can be worth the time to check different vendors/suppliers.
Good luck!!!
thabx alot for the SB buffer information. I used it but i m facing problems in resolution. I run 1kb marker on 0.8% agarose with 250volts for 30 min .
please help me if u have better results
regards
I have been able to resolve the two ~500 bp bands in a size ladder. Instead of NaOH and boric acid, I use sodium tetraborate and boric acid, which is in the Biotechniques paper.
The gels run fast, but there is no real buffering capacity, so you have to replace the buffer fairly regularly. I have tied recovering it and reusing it, but that's only good for a few runs. haven't tried 'spiking' the old buffer with fresh buffer occasionally, though, but it might work if you're really pressed for money.
Another suggestion: Look for non-profit suppliers of reagents. Depending on your research focus, a lot of governmental agencies have low-cost or even no-cost supply programs. The NIH supplies all sorts of molecular stuff related to AIDS research for free. Also, for antibodies, try the University of Iowa's Developmental Studies Hybridoma Bank (http://dshb.biology.uiowa.edu/). They offer a large number of antibodies for $25 and an acknowledgement in papers. I'm sure there are other organizations too. Anyone know any?