We have developed a fail safe colony picking/arraying system for 48, 96 and 384 well microplates.  It also provides a sterile cover to prevent airborne contamination while you are filling the plate.  Just place the Toothpick holder over the plate and inoculate the wells by placing wood (VP 371) or plastic (VP 372) toothpicks through the holes in the Toothpick holder.  Leave the toothpicks in the holder to mark your place until you finish the whole microplate, then lift the holder with the toothpicks off the microplate, invert and discard the toothpicks.  Autoclave or clean the Toothpick Holder with bleach and or alcohol and reuse.

The wood Toothpicks (VP 371) can be sterilized by Autoclaving and the plastic Toothpicks (VP 372) can be sterilized with ethylene oxide, Gamma radiation or UV light.  Many of our customers don’t sterilize the toothpicks as they are already very clean and/or they are working in systems that use antibiotic resistance strains and they culture in media that contains that antibiotic.

The Toothpick holders are also useful if you are re-arraying a library to place all the positives on one plate.  For even faster colony picking or re-arraying check out the new V&P Colony Picker VP 373.

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VP 378

VP 376

96 Hole Toothpick Holder, fits all standard 96 well microplates

VP 379

384 Hole Toothpick Holder, fits all standard 384 well microplates except the Genetix microplates

VP 379G