A serial dilution is a standard laboratory technique employed by researchers to incrementally decrease the concentration of a substance of interest, such as a chemical compound, analyte, or microorganism, within a solution or sample by using a diluent. Scientists involved in molecular biology, microbiology, or drug discovery research often employ serial dilution-based assays for several applications including preparing calibration curves for quantitative PCR experiments, enumerating microbes in a sample, or establishing the ideal drug dosage, respectively.1–3

          A photo of two VOYAGER pipettes transferring samples into a 96-well and 384-well microplate. 
By employing cutting-edge liquid handling tools, such as electronic multichannel pipettes, scientists enhance the accuracy, consistency, and throughput of their serial dilutions. 
Integra

Because the process uses the last diluted solution as an input for the next step, errors accumulate during serial dilutions and decrease the accuracy and precision of the results. Inadequate mixing is the most common problem in serial dilutions and results in heterogeneous solutions that affect later dilutions. Additionally, researchers often need to use multiple manual pipettes of different sizes for preparing highly dilute solutions, such as those in five-fold or ten-fold dilution series, which only complicates this already tedious process. 

To improve the reproducibility and reliability of their serial dilutions, scientists must use the correct liquid handling tools, such as the handheld manual and electronic pipettes offered by INTEGRA. For example, the VOYAGER electronic multichannel pipette can automatically adjust the spacing between its tips with the push of a button, which allows researchers to move samples from labware of varying sizes and formats. The pipette’s serial dilution mode also helps streamline the process by automatically handling the transferring and mixing steps without requiring the operator to change to a different sized pipette. Innovative liquid handling tools like this one enable scientists to simplify, accelerate, and advance their serial dilution workflows.

Learn more about performing serial dilutions with high accuracy and precision. 


What serial dilution-based experiments do you employ in your research?

Submit Your Answer

  1. Burns MJ, et al. BMC Biotechnol. 2005;5(1):31.
  2. Ben-David A, Davidson CE. J Microbiol Methods. 2014;107:214-221.
  3. Donev AN, Tobias RD. J Biopharm Stat. 2011;21(3):484-497.