Seriously, you cut your PCR plates?

If the wells are thin to optimize heat transfer, the material of the plate itself is rather thick. It takes good sharp scissors. Being sharp can make the situation even worse, they can slide, damage the microplate to the point where it becomes unusable, or worse hurt you.

I know that medical research is not rich and that all of these consumables aren’t free. At a minimum of 6$ a microplate, if you were to destroy half of them, it drastically increases your method cost!

Your neighboring lab is using PCR tubes strips. Of course, that has its drawbacks. Let’s say you’re running 50 samples, this means manipulating 6 strips individually and closing each tube with its cap or putting on strips of caps. There is no way to seal them all at once. Watch out for contamination, stripping 8 tubes of their caps in one movement without letting droplets of condensation fall in any tube, that’s a circus performance! 

Do you do real-time PCR in transparent plates? The well is not totally in contact with the tube, there usually remains a space at the top and through this space can escape precious photons. Did you know that the sensitivity of a white plate for real-time PCR is increased tenfold? 

Listen, I have a secret for you but don’t tell anyone ok? It seems that there are now divisible microplates. Yes! You pull them apart and end up with a partial plate with the exact number of wells that you need. What remains is intact and clearly reusable, and divisible again! Better even, there are mats of plugs just as divisible; you tear what you need, you seal all your wells at once, and keep the rest for the next run. This plate is also offered in white to improve your signal-to-noise ratio if you’re doing real-time PCR.

You will be able to make faces to your lab neighbor because, on a cost per well basis, these plates are cheaper than the tube strips. So why deprive yourself? But let's keep this secret for yourself.

T320-96 - SUPERFLEX™ PCR PLATES