Ultrapure water on the ‘brain’
08/01/2005
BILLERICA, Mass. - Millipore Corp. (www.millipore.com) has developed a custom-designed loop system linking two of its technologies for ultrapure water requirements in research being conducted by Allen Institute for Brain Science (AIBS; www.brainatlas.org). The method, which combines the Elix 20 and Milli-Q water purification technologies in supplying pretreated water to an ultrapure system, feeds multiple liquid-handling robots that are being used in AIBS’s pioneering brain-research automation processes.
AIBS is developing the Allen Brain Atlas, a neurogenomics atlas of the mouse brain that will be used to advance research into human brain functions, behaviors and diseases. Institute researchers are using a technique called in situ hybridization that selectively maps genes to brain cells expressing that gene, and then provides the anatomical brain-labeled image of the results via its Web site.
Automating its technology in hopes of speeding development of the Atlas, AIBS needed a water system to meet the technology’s strict ultrapure requirements. Millipore’s loop system solution, sais AIBS, not only feeds the hybridization’s robotic process, it also provides a solution designed to minimize contamination risk.
The combination of Millipore’s Elix 20 and Milli-Q Synthesis systems, says Paul Wohnoutka, AIBS associate director of engineering and production support, “ensure water quality at the point where it’s needed.” Elix 20 combines pretreatment, reverse osmosis and patented electrodeionization purification technologies to produce Type II analytical-grade water. The Milli-Q systems, meanwhile, are designed to combine ultraviolet photo-oxidation and ultrafiltration technologies in one unit to provide ultrapure water that’s free of fever-producing pyrogen bacteria and RNase bacterial contamination.