Standard Lab Equipment

This equipment is not listed within individual protocols unless there are specific requirements; for example, the item needs to be made of a specific material. It may be a useful starting point when stocking a new laboratory.

Safety related

• Biohazard disposal containers and bags
• Biosafety cabinet
• Geiger counter or hand-held minimonitor
• Gloves, disposable plastic and asbestos
• Lab coats, including disposable (and other protective clothing)
• Radiation shield, Plexiglas
• Radioactive waste containers for liquid and solid waste
• Safety glasses
• Safety shower and eyewash
• Sharp-object disposal containers

Large-scale equipment

• Autoclave
• Balances, analytical and preparative
• Beakers (list if silanized/siliconized)
• Camera
• Cell harvester
• Centrifuge, bench-top (list temperature if a specific temperature other than room temperature or 4 °C is required)
• Cold room
• Computer and printer
• Darkroom and developing tanks
• Fraction collector
• Freezer (-70 °C, -2- °C, and liquid nitrogen)
• Fume hood
• Gel dryer
• Gel electrophoresis equipment
• Heating blocks
• Ice maker
• Incubator, 37 °C, including shaking incubator
• Incubator, humidified 37 °C (list other incubation temperatures; and always list specific % CO₂)
• Laminar-flow hood, clean bench, or tissue culture enclosure
• Light box
• Liquid nitrogen, storage tanks, and canes
• Lyophilizer
• Microbiological hood
• Microcentrifuge with maximum speed ~13,000 rpm (list temperature if a specific temperature other than room temperature or 4 °C is required)
• Microscopes, bright-field (list dissecting, inverted, and phase-contrast)
• Microwave oven
• Ovens: drying, hybridization, and microwave (but list if temperature spec is given)
• pH meter
• Refrigerator, 4 °C
• Rotary evaporator
• Shaking incubator
• Scintillation counter
• Speedvac evaporator (Savant)
• Tissue culture hood
• Thermal cycler, automated for PCR
• Ultracentrifuge
• UV lamp or monitor, hand-held
• UV transilluminator
• UV/visible-light spectrophotometer (list spectrofluorimeter and microtiter plate reader)
• Water bath, 37°C (list other temperatures); may be shaking
• Water purification equipment

Small-scale equipment

• Bottles, glass (e.g. Wheaton)
• Bunsen burners
• Cold box
• Clamps
• Cuvette holder (list only if temperature-controlled with the specified temperature)
• Desiccator and desiccant
• Flasks, glass, including autoclavable and Erlenmeyer (list if silanized, or volumetric if size is specified)
• Forceps
• Funnels (list Buchner funnels)
• Graduated cylinders
• Heat-sealable plastic bags and sealing apparatus
• Hemocytometer
• Hot plate
• Ice buckets
• Magnetic stirrer (with or without heating capability)
• Magnetic stirrer bars
• Micropipettors, adjustable delivery, volume ranges 0.5–10 ?l, 10–200 ?l, and 200–1,000 ?l (list multichannel pipettor)
• Mortar and pestle
• Paper cutter, large-size (guillotine)
• Pipettor (or pipette filler): rubber-bulb, pump, or electrical
• Pliers, needle nose
• Power supplies, electrophoretic
• Racks, test tube and microcentrifuge tube
• Ring stand and rings
• Rotator, for tubes (list hematology mixer)
• Scalpel
• Scissors
• Shaker, orbital or platform
• Spatulas, stainless steel (list and specify if require different material)
• Staining dishes, e.g., Coplin jars
• Stirring rods, glass
• Stoppers, rubber and cork
• Thermometers
• Timer
• Tongs
• Trays, plastic and glass (e.g., for gel staining)
• Tubes, glass test tubes, boiling tubes
• Vacuum aspirator
• Vacuum desiccator
• Vacuum line
• Volumetric flask
• Vortex mixer
• Wash bottles
• Watch glass
• X-ray film cassettes and intensifying screens

Disposables

• Applicators, cotton-tipped and wooden
• Bench protectors, plastic-backed (including “blue pads”)
• Cannulas
• Cell culture flasks (25 ml, 75 ml, 150ml)
• Cell strainers
• Clingfilm (Saran wrap)
• Cryovials, sterile
• Cuvettes, disposable (list UV-transparent, quartz, and micro)
• Culture slides
• Dialysis tubing and cassettes
• Dry ice
• Filter paper (but list if a specific type is required)
• Inoculating loops
• Labels
• Lint-free tissue
• Micropipettor tips
• Microscope slides and cover slips (list if the thickness of the cover slips is specified)
• Multiwell plates (6, 12 and 96 well plates, but list if specific material required)
• Paper towels
• Parafilm
• Pens, permanent marker
• Pencil, e.g. china marking
• Petri plates
• pH paper
• Pipettes, serological, Pasteur, and transfer (list volumetric, silanized, or special composition)
• Plastic wrap
• Policemen, rubber or plastic, e.g. for cell scraping
• Razor blades
• Rubber tubing
• Scalpel blades
• Scintillation tubes (list if a specific type is required)
• Sterilization filter units
• Syringes
• Syringe filters (0.22 and 0.45 micron)
• Tape, masking and electrician’s
• Tubes, 15 ml, 20 ml, 50 ml conical (list if there are specific requirements, e.g. polypropylene for organic solvents, silanized)
• Tubes, various-sized microcentrifuge, sterile or nonsterile (list if silanized or of particular composition) X-ray film