How do you use a Centrifuge? A step-by-step guide!
Channel: YouTooBio
Date: 2020-10-27

Can an Antarctic fish do blood doping? Learn how a centrifuge helped answer that question – and learn practical tips for how to use a centrifuge! This video focuses on how to use a microcentrifuge, but the principles apply to large centrifuges as well.

0:00 Introduction
0:17 What does a centrifuge do?
0:58 Scientists used a centrifuge to study blood doping in fish
1:34 How do you use a centrifuge?
1:49 WARNING Make sure the tubes are balanced
2:27 Pro-Tip: There are several ways to balance tubes in a centrifuge
3:03 Pellet and supernatant
3:21 Pro-Tip: Orient the hinges of the tubes outward
3:45 Questions you can answer with centrifuges

The Antarctic Fish research story is based on this paper:

J. Brijs, M. Axelsson, M. Rosengren, F. Jutfelt, A. Gräns, Extreme blood-boosting capacity of an Antarctic fish represents an adaptation to life in a sub-zero environment. The Journal of Experimental Biology 223, jeb218164 (2020). http://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.218164

Cartoon Illustrations by Michelle Lotker
Scientific consultation by Ashley Lakoduk

Images by:
Blood into capillary tube by Marek M – CC-BY SA 3.0
Hematocrit in capillary tube by PookieFugglestein – Public Domain
Centrifuge tubes by Kathy Zarilla with permission

Handyfuge video with permission from Manu Prakash

Learn more about the Handyfuge hand-powered centrifuge and efforts to bring electricity-free Coronavirus testing to resource limited areas:
http://web.stanford.edu/group/prakash-lab/cgi-bin/labsite/
https://github.com/ethanjli/handyfuge

This video is copyright Jayme Dyer, published under the Creative Commons CC-BY SA 4.0 license. 

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