So I have a STAR that is internally trading hands between groups. The previous group had a bacterial workflow and the new is a protein. I’ve been looking into what the best practice is for decontaminating a STAR in this situation.
The manual recommends to use some mythical cleaner I can’t seem to purchase ro track down.
Has anyone been in this scenario and just wiped it down with ethanol and blasted it with UV and called it day?
We do 70% ethanol wipe-downs + UV, seems to work fine.
The cleaner in the operator’s manual is Deconex SOLARSEPT, a broad-spectrum disinfectant and cleaner. The US equivalent is Microcide SQ. See this link for its MSDS and efficacy.
US part numbers:
Many customers use ethanol as Stefan suggests though!
And when customers use ethanol I’m just wondering if they are doing this as a daily clean. I just feel trading workflows like this where scientists are extremely worried about contamination if just wiping down with ethanol will do it.
Does Hamilton have and instances where a STAR are transferred from bacterial to protein workflow I could point to?
I just have the efficacy report for Microcide SQ that we recommend. The report from the manufacturer includes bacteria and virus testing. This was uploaded to the link I provided above, but see below for general features and benefits:
If I can find out anything else, I will share it!
@EricSindelar_Hamilton thank you! After looking this over they ordered some and are satisfied moving forward!
I LOVE THIS FORUM!!!
Sorry to open up this very old topic, we’re currently revising our cleaning SOP for our ML STAR systems.
Currently we follow the steps in the manual to do weekly maintenance, although we use 70% EtOH along with a different disinfectant to do most of the surfaces in lieu of SOLARSEPT. Our SOP also lists the cleaning instructions for the channels like wiping down the tip eject sleeve, but we list say to use a lint free cloth soaked in our cleaning reagent followed by 70% EtOH. (we do say to only wipe the channel itself with a lint free cloth soaked in DI water)
Is this safe for our instrument or should we consider using a different alcohol based alternative? I believe the only other alcohol based cleaning reagent that we use is IPA, but unsure if that is ok to use so close to the channels either.
From what I recall, I’ve been told not to wipe the o-rings on channels or MPH with any alcohol. Only DI water with a lint free cloth is allowed.
“Occasional” cleaning with alcohol is ok. Once or twice a month if you are concerned with contamination or something was splashed onto them.
Using it on the regular dries them out and they will start to crack and degrade at a faster rate.