surgical residence (surglab1 at is.rvh.mcgill.ca) wrote:
> Hi there.
> We're a cellular immunology lab with a pile of 24-well cell culture
> plates that, we believe, have become contaminated with some kind of
> fungal spore (Hint for the rest of the world: Try not to get a lab
> with a leaky ceiling). The plates are past their one-year sterility
> guarantee, so sending them back to the company is not an option.
> Is it possible to eliminate the contamination by nuking the plates in
> a microwave oven? If so, for how long and at what power level?
I'm no expert in this, but I would far sooner use UV, gas or irradiation
than microwaving, both in terms of not wrecking the plastic and
actually sterilizing them. I would think any hospital would have
the equipment for this.
Are you absolutely sure it is the plates rather than your medium,
cells, water in your incubator, etc? I would think that sterile-
wrapped culture plates should be sterile much longer than a year?
Good luck!
H. Engelhardt
hengel at aps.uoguelph.ca
