Cleaning Beads

	BioSpec Products, Inc. (800) 617-3363 or (918) 336-3363

^{Cleaning
Your Beads}

^{In most cases,
cleaning new glass or ceramic bead media is unnecessary. The only contaminate
- carbon black - is so inert that its presence in your prep has no effect.
And, it is soon removed upon centrifugation or filtration in the steps that usually
follow cell disruption. Do not acid wash beads. It is a waste
of time.}

^{Clean used beads by soaking over night in a solution of laboratory detergent.
Then rinse away all detergent with several changes of tap water and then with
RO- or distilled water. Dry the beads in an open stainless steel or glass tray
at 40 to 70ºC.
If the dried beads do not pour freely (i.e., they are caked together), then they
were not cleaned or rinsed well enough. Repeat the cleaning protocol.}

If you are isolating nucleic acids from disrupted cells, beads can be soaked in a 1:10 dilution of ordinary household bleach (Clorox or equivalent) for 5 minutes. This not only cleans and sterilizes the beads, but completely destroys contaminating nucleic acids. See Biotechniques, Vol 12, 358-360 (1992).

^{You can reuse
beads about ten times before they wear down to too small a size.
To replace them see bead media.}

^{Beads can be autoclaved.
But first make sure they are clean.}