Pipettes for Stress Response Research in Cells

All organisms are exposed to stresses, both short- and long-term, over their lifetimes. As a consequence, cells’ genomes, epigenomes and proteomes may incur damage that must be repaired to maintain normal function. But as organisms age, their ability to respond both to ordinary wear and tear and to extraordinary stresses, such as high temperatures or toxins, diminishes.

Research in the Dillin laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, focuses on how organisms react to and mitigate the effects of stress at the cellular level — and how to boost such responses in aging organisms. In particular, their work queries how the incidence of age-related diseases directly linked to impaired stress response, diabetes and cancer among them, might be reduced to promote healthier aging.
 

Once candidate stress-related genes have been identified by screening, Dr. Higuchi-Sanabria and his colleagues use quantitative PCR to verify that the genes’ expression has truly been “knocked down” in the screened nematodes. Given C. elegans’ thousands of genes, preparing libraries, setting up screens, and validating candidate genes all require a great deal of pipetting, and the Dillin lab relies heavily on METTLER TOLEDO’s Rainin multichannel pipettes.

In 2018, METTLER TOLEDO launched its first Supporting Science initiative, offering the winner the pipette of his or her choice. Dr. Higuchi-Sanabria had previously spoken to the Dillin lab’s manager, Larry Joe, about purchasing additional Rainin multichannel pipettes. He was particularly interested in an adjustable-width multichannel pipette that could be used to transfer samples between microcentrifuge tubes in a rack and 96- or 384-well plates, or a 2–20 μL multichannel pipette that could accurately and precisely transfer limiting samples (3–12 μL) between PCR strips and well plates.