Scooping 293H colonies - (Apr/02/2007 )

Hi, I have a protocol from another lab about 293H transfection. Several days following the transfection and selection process it describes to wait until the cells are 100% confluent and colonies/patches appear. It then says to "scoop" out the colonies and seed new dishes. Now I know this may sound dumb but I'm not sure what is meant by "scoop" out. What methods would you use to scoop the cells? Is it that metal bar like for transferring bacteria? I was thinking of using a sterile glass pipette.

when we have single colonies, we use a microscope to pick colonie with the help of a 10ul pipete tip. But u need separate single colonies.

I might try that when the time comes. Thanks

I have my cells in a small amount of PBS when I pick colonies. I usually use a yellow pipet tip (~200 µl), circle around the edge of the colony, then dip the tip in PBS and try lifting the whole colony by releasing just a small amount of PBS and sucking it back up. Always works for my. That's what I think is meant by "scoop" -> try lifting the colony off the bottom of the dish.