Frequently Asked Questions
If your questions are not listed below, please contact technical support: [email protected]
1. How should I dissolve the product for preparing stock solution?
Most of the small molecule compounds cannot be dissolved directly with water, PBS or saline, but they are soluble in organic solvents such as DMSO or ethanol. For obtaining higher solubility, warm the tube at 37°C and sonicate in ultrasonic bath. Solubility is temperature dependent. Cooling or freezing may cause precipitations, so re-dissolve the solution completely before use.
2. How should I dilute and store the stock solution?
Stock solution can be further diluted with aqueous media for in vitro and in vivo assays. Although fraction of organic solvent residuals (e.g. 0.1% DMSO), should not affect majority of the assays, run a solvent control just in case.
Stock solution can be stored below -20℃ for several months. The activity of the small molecule compounds should not be affected by several freeze/thaw cycle.
3. How do I dissolve the lyophilized peptide and store the solution?
Reconstitute the peptide in appropriate buffer, sonicate briefly if required. It is recommended to make aliquots of the peptide solutions and stored at -20°C.
If the peptide is acidic (net charge is negative) or neutral (net charge is zero), dissolve the peptide in a small amount of 0.1 M ammonium bicarbonate and dilute with water to the required concentration.
If the peptide is basic (net charge is positive), dissolve the peptide in a small amount of 25% acetic acid and dilute with water to the required concentration.
If the peptide is hydrophobic (uncharged), dissolve the peptide in organic solvents such as CAN, DMSO and DMF.
Take caution to avoid oxidation in peptide containing Trp, Met or Cys. Oxygen-free water or reducing agents may be used.
4. Why do my products arrive at room temperature when the indicated storage temperature is +4°C or -20°C?
If the products are delivered at room temperature, it means they are stable during shipping and proper handling. Normally, storage in the refrigerator or freezer is only required for long-term storage and products in powder form can store up to 2 years at -20°C
5. What is the quantity of evaluation sample?
We provide 1 mg of the evaluation sample.
6. How are the product purity and quality determined?
We pay the most careful attention to the quality of our products. The typical product purity is >98%. All products are manufactured with rigorous guidelines and are accompanied with certificates of analysis, HPLC, Mass Spectrum, and HMNR data which can be found on the product webpage.
7. Do different batches of a product always look the same?
Occasionally, different batches of the product may look slightly different in color and appearance. But it will not affect purity, quality or performance of the product.
8. How should the product be used?
All our products are strictly for laboratory research use ONLY. They should not be used for pharmaceutical, agricultural, cosmetic, food, household or any other human use.
If published data of Ki or IC50 values are available for an inhibitor, it is recommended to use 5-10 times higher than these values to maximize the inhibitory effect.
Biological data, background information and references are all listed on our product webpage for your guidance, but they are not always up-to-date or fully comprehensive. Therefore, we suggest you also carry out your own literature research before starting the experiment.
9. Why my product can hardly be seen in the vial?
Sometimes, product in small quantities can easily attach to the wall of vial, so the vial looks almost empty. Make sure the product is completely dissolved with the right solvent using vortex or sonication.
10. Handling Waxy or Hygroscopic substances.
Waxy and sticky substances are difficult to weigh out precisely. Hence we recommend you dissolve such products directly in the right solvent.
Hygroscopic substances tend to absorb moisture from the environment, thus turn into soaky or liquid form. You can protect such products by storing in a desiccator.