Prior to the experiment, prepare the following:
- Disinfect the surfaces and pipettes
- Turn on waterbath and set it to 65°C
- Turn on oven and set it to 90°C
- Turn on heating block and set it to 37°C
- Incubate MBL solution in waterbath
- Attach vortex adapter to vortexer
Moreover, check if the Sterivex filter units are dry. If that is not the case, use a syringe to remove the remaining water. In addition, seal the outlet tightly with Parafilm or replace the present Parafilm on the outlet with a new one, respectively.
Note: due to the limited space on the vortex adapter only 6 Sterivex filter units can be vortexed at the same time. However, in order to increase the number of samples to extract simultaneously, it is possible to prepare another 6 Sterivex filter units while the first batch is vortexing for 20min (step 8 and 9). Afterwards, the second batch of samples is vortexed. In the last 5 min of vortexing of the second batch, the first batch is incubated at 90°C in the oven (step 11). The following steps then allow to work on both batches simultaneously (work on one batch while the other is vortexing). Ultimately, the two batches can then be joined prior to step 15.