To enhance detection methods for hepatitis A and Norovirus in fresh and frozen produce, scientists at the Institute of Nutrition and Functional Foods, Université Laval in Quebec, and BioMérieux in Grenoble, France, used the Concentrating Pipette method. They compared this method to the ISO 15216-1:2017 reference method for food safety testing.

The study involved contaminating 25 g samples of strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, lettuce, and green onions with HAV, HuNoV GI.7, and HuNoV GII.4 to assess the effectiveness of both methods.

The Concentrating Pipette Method, which requires only benchtop equipment and involves fewer steps per sample, was able to detect as few as 102 genomes. It yielded comparable results for most food matrices tested—namely strawberries, blackberries, lettuce, and green onions—in 35% less time. These findings indicate that the Concentrating Pipette ultrafiltration method is effective for routine analysis of enteric viruses in food matrices throughout the food production and surveillance chain.

The study entitled, Concentration of foodborne viruses eluted from fresh and frozen produce: Applicability of ultrafiltration Trudel-Ferland, et al. was published in the International Journal of Food Microbiology

An InnovaPrep AirPrep™ sampler was used to collect samples from various areas of a hospital, including patient rooms in a COVID-19 ward during the pandemic, allowing simultaneous monitoring of bacterial bioaerosols and the presence of SARS-CoV-2. The air samples underwent analysis using 16s gene metabarcoding.

The study, performed by scientists at the University of Salento, Lecce, Italy, investigated the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in hospital areas with and without infected patients. Due to logistics and bureaucracy, it is likely that the patients were not infectious for SARS-CoV-2 by the time sampling could be performed.  Extensive sequencing revealed a vast number of aerosolized bacterial species such as Corynebacterium tuberculostearicum and pathogenic staphylococci, likely being the main pathogens infecting patients.

 “This efficient sampling method improves understanding of hospital air quality, potential transmission routes, and infection control measures. Ultimately, it contributes to enhanced safety for both patients and staff in healthcare settings.”

Read the publication:

Simultaneous monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 and bacterial profiles from the air of hospital environments with COVID-19-affected patients, Perrone et al.

In this report from 2017, researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory were the first to Isolate and purify functional exosomes using the Concentrating Pipette.

The aim of this testing was to investigate ways to replace or optimize upon the widely used ultracentrifuge method for isolating exosomes (Extracellular Shed Vesicles), for basic science applications as the high forces generated using ultracentrifugation can affect exosome morphology and can negatively impact exosome function and thus need a gentler process of isolation.

The results show that the quantity and size of vesicle concentration is comparable between the samples processed on the Concentrating Pipette and those concentrated by ultracentrifugation.  “Overall, the concentrating pipette operation was user friendly, and easy to use. The average throughput was 1 ml/minute."

The authors noted the Concentrating Pipette instrument stopping during runs, however, since this report’s publication, InnovaPrep has significantly improved the CP System through increased surface area of the Concentrating Pipette tips, a new generation model of the Concentrating Pipette instrument (CP Select), as well as optimized menu settings for the concentration and elution parameters.

An application note is available – See Application Notes under the Resources Tab on this website.

Read the Technical Report –

Extracellular Shed Vesicle Isolation - InnovaPrep^® Concentrating Pipette, Ultracentrifugation, and Systems Biosciences ExoQuick^®  Fong, et al. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory