MISSION VIEJO : College Uses Grant to Buy Centrifuges

The centrifuge is a piece of equipment that’s as basic to a biology student as a word processor is to a writer.

But Saddleback College did not have a particular model until this semester, forcing one teacher to borrow one from UC Irvine.

“All of my ideas for lab assignments required this particular type of centrifuge,” said Ruth Wrightsman, professor of biological sciences. “There was like a big gap.”

Wrightsman helped write a proposal for the $47,000 National Science Foundation grant that recently purchased five centrifuges and two other types of equipment used to separate and study particles.

Students are using the equipment this semester to perform assignments that before weren’t possible. In addition, school officials say, it allows them to update biology curriculum and better prepare students for university work and ultimately for careers related to the medical sciences.

“If we don’t change and update, students transfer and they’ll miss the last 10 years of biology unless we continue working to incorporate that information,” Wrightsman said.

Resembling a household washing machine, the centrifuge separates particles by spinning samples of fluid, such as blood, at an extremely high rate of speed inside a steel chamber in the basket of the machine.

Laboratory workers commonly use the device when testing blood for various viruses and diseases.

The school purchased one $22,000 centrifuge along with four smaller ones this summer.