Technical Information
Serum Products
All sera are produced from blood collected only from veterinary inspected healthy animals. The serum is then filter sterilised to a minimum pore size of 0.2µ (in the case of foetal bovine serum the pore size is 0.1µ ). Serum and plasma products supplied as Control Matrices can be supplied unfiltered as required.
Donor Sera
The herds are kept under strict control with respect to diet and other husbandry conditions so as to maintain the animals in good health that is continuously monitored under veterinary supervision.
The blood is collected aseptically by venepuncture. Subsequent processing is conducted within strictly controlled conditions to provide a bacteriophage-free serum as tested using E.coli C300.
Heat Inactivation
To inactivate the complement sterile filtered serum is heated to and maintained at 56°C for a period of 30 minutes.
Gamma Irradiation
This process is carried out after sterile filtration in the final containers to guarantee freedom from all micro-organisms known to concern the biotechnologist. Please note that irradiation will cause both glass and PETG bottles to darken in colour. Serum is gamma irradiated at a minimum dose of 25 KiloGray (kGy). If requested, serum may be sterile filtered once more after irradiation to remove any debris resulting from the irradiation process. Please note that the efficiency of the serum is impaired by exposure.
Sera Lab can also offer serum that has been dialysed or charcoal stripped. Please contact us for further details.
Storage and Shipping
- Serum products are stored at -20°C. It is recommended that customers store these materials in the dark. When correctly stored, serum may be used with minimal loss of activity, over a period of years. For optimum performance we recommend that the serum be stored at the indicated temperature and used prior to the expiry date shown on the label.
- Due to the high cost of refrigerated transport, these products are normally shipped at ambient temperature in insulated containers. Shipments can be made with DRY ICE (solid carbon dioxide) if requested and this will be charged to the customer at cost.
- Customers should avoid multiple freeze/thaw cycles for protein products. Serum should preferably be dispensed aseptically into suitable aliquots and stored frozen until required.