Greetings,
Our department is having a mild autoclave crisis (all are down and a number have been down for months), and as such it is becoming difficult to keep up with our usage, especially as 3 of our members (including myself) are going into large scale baculoviral protein expression in SF9 cells. I was just curious if anyone knows of a way whereby we can sterilize our culture flasks without the use of an autoclave? I know bleaching is out of the question, as it will be absorbed by the plastic and then slowly dispelled into our cultures, but I am at my wits end with this. Any and all help would be appreciated!
Hi Conner Slone ,
Reuse of culture flasks is usually not recommended, however you can sterilize your flasks using bleach solution (dilute solution of sodium hypochlorite) and gamma radiation. Also for more information you can visit the following link:
https://www.dwkltd.com/en/technical/plastic-containers-bottle-sterilisation
You could try UV light sterilization. It takes a while, requires exposure to all parts of the flask with no shadows, and might burn out the UV bulbs but could get you through.
Ethanol is another possibility. Or, can you just boil the flasks? That's what I do for at home canning.
First of all, I strongly agree with Dr. Amy Klocko about UV irradiance. Silver nanoparticle can be an option for trying. Of course every suggestion should be tested to confirm its validity.
UV will damage the plastic.
try the microwave, do not add water into the flask, just put the dried flask in the microwave for minutes.
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