Hey everyone,
I am an engineering student working in a lab over the summer. I am majoring in Aerospace and have a minor in Biomedical Engineering. I am working in a biology helping them out with their equipment and trying to design new things to make their lives easier. A problem they are having is the cell growth medium needs to be refrigerated for storage but needs to be warmed to body temperature before it is put in with the cells. Right now they have to set it out let it warm to room temperature then use a burner to get it up to body temp and it it goes to far over it can denature some of the important enzymes and such in the medium. I figure there has to be a way to create a pump that draws the medium out of the container then a way to heat the tubing on its way to the other end where it can come out at just the right temperature ready to by sprayed into the culture sites. I've got my eye on a peristaltic pump which I know will be gentle enough to not crush any important molecules but can't think of a good way to heat the tubing to the right temperature each time. It needs to get to go from around 2 degrees C to 37 degrees C and only between 25-50 ml needs to be heated at a time. Money isn't a huge problem (its a very productive lab) so if anyone has any ideas or know of products on the market it that might help out that would be great. Thanks so much!
I am an engineering student working in a lab over the summer. I am majoring in Aerospace and have a minor in Biomedical Engineering. I am working in a biology helping them out with their equipment and trying to design new things to make their lives easier. A problem they are having is the cell growth medium needs to be refrigerated for storage but needs to be warmed to body temperature before it is put in with the cells. Right now they have to set it out let it warm to room temperature then use a burner to get it up to body temp and it it goes to far over it can denature some of the important enzymes and such in the medium. I figure there has to be a way to create a pump that draws the medium out of the container then a way to heat the tubing on its way to the other end where it can come out at just the right temperature ready to by sprayed into the culture sites. I've got my eye on a peristaltic pump which I know will be gentle enough to not crush any important molecules but can't think of a good way to heat the tubing to the right temperature each time. It needs to get to go from around 2 degrees C to 37 degrees C and only between 25-50 ml needs to be heated at a time. Money isn't a huge problem (its a very productive lab) so if anyone has any ideas or know of products on the market it that might help out that would be great. Thanks so much!
