[ Care and Use ManUal ]
Sirocco Protein PreciPitation Plate
The Sirocco™ plate was designed to improve the automation and through-
put of protein precipitation in drug metabolism/ADME/toxicology labs.
The Sirocco Protein Precipitation Plate is a unique combination of novel
96-well plate tip design with proprietary new filter membranes.
A straightforward 7-step procedure designed to enable precipitate free
sample filtrates suitable for high-throughput LC/MS analysis.
Step 1 – Preparation
Step 2 – Add Crash Solvent
Add precipitation solvent to all wells. Use a ratio of at least 3:1 solvent
to sample. Acetonitrile is the recommended precipitation solvent. The
Sirocco plate is designed to prevent solvent from leaking through the
plate at this step.
Step 3 – Load Sample
Add 20-200 µL of sample (plasma, urine, etc.) rapidly into the wells. Rapid
delivery of sample into the crash solvent creates mixing and initiates
precipitation process.
Place the Sirocco Plate on a collection plate for processing. This protects
the valve tips during the processing steps.
Sirocco Protein
Precipitation Plate
96-Well Collection Plate
1Sirocco Protein Precipitation Plate
[ Care and Use ManUal ]
Step 4 – Seal
Apply vented cap mat, using a cap roller to ensure secure, uniform sealing.
This will prevent splashing and cross-talk during mixing.
Cap Mat
Step 5 – Mix
Shake (mix) the loaded Sirocco plate/collection plate assembly on a vortexer
(e.g., Multi-Tube Vortexer from VWR) at medium setting (e.g., setting 5 on a
1-10 scale) for 0.5 to 1.0 minute.
Step 6 – Filter
After mixing, place the Sirocco plate on a Vacuum Manifold (e.g. Waters
vacuum manifold P/N 186001831), and apply 8-5” Hg (271-508 mbar)
of vacuum for up to three minutes. A higher vacuum setting can be used if
flow does not occur at 10” Hg.
Note: The Sirocco proprietary valve tip design prevents liquid flow through
the device until a minimum 5” Hg (169 mbar) of vacuum is applied.
Note: The Sirocco Plate can be filtered by using centrifiguation (@ 2,000 x g
for 1 min.) in place of vacuum device.
Note: There is no need to remove the vented cap mats or valve tips from the
Sirocco Plate before filtration. This eliminates the risk of cross-talk between
wells. The valves and vented cap mat are designed to open under vacuum
to allow controlled flow during filtration.
Note: Excessive mixing at too high a setting (e.g., setting 8 on a 1-10
scale) could cause cross-talk. Under mixing (e.g., setting 2 on a 1-10 scale)
will cause clogging or a cloudy filtrate.
Step 7– Analysis
Discard the Sirocco Plate and remove the collection plate containing clear
filtrate from the vacuum device, seal and transfer to the LC/MS autosam-
pler or store for later analysis.
Note: There is no need to remove cap mats or valve tips from Sirocco Plate.
The Sirocco Plate is discarded after filtration.
Xevo™ TQ MS ACQUITY® SM BSM
2Sirocco Protein Precipitation Plate