For years, labs have understood the value of reusing pipette tips, saving money, reducing waste, and easing supply-chain strain. But one type of tip has always been off-limits: filtered tips. Their built-in filters protect samples and pipettes from aerosols and cross-contamination, but that same design made them nearly impossible to clean effectively, until now.

With the launch of PureTIP One, IonField Systems has made it possible to clean and reuse filtered tips for the first time. The key breakthrough? A new continuous-flow plasma design that draws plasma up and through the entire tip.

How continuous plasma flow changes everything

In previous systems, like the PureTIP model mounted on liquid handlers, plasma cleaning was limited by the platform itself. Liquid handlers use a mandrel head to hold and eject tips, and that head contains seals and components that could be damaged by plasma exposure. As a result, plasma could only be applied around the outside and partial interior of the tip, not all the way through it.

PureTIP One changes that. Because it’s a standalone system built specifically for plasma cleaning, there’s no liquid-handling hardware in the way. The system can now generate and pull a continuous stream of plasma up through the tip bore and out the top, fully exposing every internal surface to the reactive plasma species that do the real cleaning work.

This flow-through design not only accelerates the cleaning process, it also extends the reach of plasma into areas that were previously untouched, including the filter region. That makes it the first and only system that can reliably and safely clean filtered pipette tips.

Why filtered tips matter

Filtered tips are used when contamination control is critical, for example, in:

• Genomics workflows, where even trace DNA or RNA carryover can alter results

• qPCR and NGS sample prep, where cross-contamination can lead to false positives

• Cell culture and proteomics, where aerosols or vapors can damage instruments or compromise samples

Each filtered tip contains a small barrier, usually made of hydrophobic material, that prevents aerosols or liquids from reaching the pipette barrel. The trade-off is that these tips cost more and generate more waste, because they’ve traditionally been single-use.

Why cleaning and reusing filtered tips is a breakthrough

By enabling filtered tip reuse, PureTIP One closes one of the last remaining gaps in sustainable labware reuse. Labs can now recover the high-value filtered tips they depend on, clean them in seconds, and put them back into circulation, without compromising performance.

The benefits are immediate:

• Cost savings from reduced consumable purchases

• Lower waste generation and improved sustainability metrics

• Increased supply-chain resilience, since labs rely less on disposable tip inventories

• Validated cleanliness, as the plasma process removes DNA, RNA, proteins, and small-molecule residues from both the tip and filter region

Designed for plasma — and for the future

Because PureTIP One was built from the ground up for plasma cleaning, it’s free from the limitations of liquid-handler-mounted systems. Every component is optimized for low-temperature, reactive-gas exposure, allowing the system to harness continuous plasma flow safely and efficiently.

The result: a faster, more complete cleaning cycle and the ability to handle the most challenging tip types.

With PureTIP One, IonField Systems has unlocked a new level of labware reuse, bringing labs one step closer to circular, waste-free operation, without compromising data integrity.