Pierce™ Bovine Serum Albumin Standard Ampules, 2 mg/mL - FAQs

The Pierce Bovine Serum Albumin Standard, 2 mg/mL is covered under our general 1-year warranty and is guaranteed to be fully functional for 12 months from the date of shipment, if stored as recommended. Please see section 8.1 of our Terms & Conditions of Sale (https://www.thermofisher.com/content/dam/LifeTech/Documents/PDFs/Terms-and-Conditions-of-Sale.pdf) for more details.

Find additional tips, troubleshooting help, and resources within our Protein Assays and Analysis Support Center.

Pierce Bovine Serum Albumin Standard Ampules, 2 mg/mL are covered under our general 1-year warranty and are guaranteed to be fully functional for 12 months from the date of shipment, if stored as recommended (room temperature). Please see section 8.1 of our Terms & Conditions of Sale (https://www.thermofisher.com/content/dam/LifeTech/Documents/PDFs/Terms-and-Conditions-of-Sale.pdf).

Find additional tips, troubleshooting help, and resources within our Protein Assays and Analysis Support Center.

NanoDrop CF-1 Calibration Fluid is the only photometric standard available to assess the accuracy of the NanoDrop spectrophotometer pedestal. If the control sample shows unexpected results the user should confirm the calibration of the instrument with the CF-1 fluid.
Some control examples include:
- Nucleic Acids: Fermentas GeneRuler Express DNA Ladder 100-5000 bp (Cat. No. SM1551)
- Protein: Pierce Bovine Serum Albumin Standard Ampules, 2 mg/mL (Cat. No. 23209)

There are several ampule-breaking devices sold through various suppliers such as Fisher Scientific (see https://www.fishersci.com/us/en/catalog/search/products?keyword=ampule+breaker&nav=) that can be used.

Find additional tips, troubleshooting help, and resources within our Protein Assays and Analysis Support Center.

The challenge of diluted BSA standards is that they need to be protected from microbial growth, evaporation and protein precipitation. These will result in artificially high or low protein concentration values. Including additional sodium azide with the diluted protein standards to maintain a final concentration of 0.05% will help prevent microbial growth. The shelf life of diluted standards can be extended if they are sealed and kept refrigerated.

Find additional tips, troubleshooting help, and resources within our Protein Assays and Analysis Support Center.

The BSA standards are tested by measuring their absorbance at 280 nm and the results are compared to a 2 mg/mL standard that we obtained from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The official standard is of traceable origin with an identification number of NIST # 927. Our specifications require the BSA concentration to be 2.00 ± 0.03 mg/mL.

Find additional tips, troubleshooting help, and resources within our Protein Assays and Analysis Support Center.

BSA standards are preformulated solutions of Bovine Albumin Fraction V in 0.9% NaCl. The standards also include 0.05% sodium azide to prevent microbial contamination. The BSA standards can be diluted to predetermined concentrations in order to prepare standard curves for protein assays such as BCA Protein Assay Kit (Cat. No. 23225), 660 nm Protein Assay Reagent (Cat. No. 22660), Coomassie Plus (Bradford) Assay Kit (Cat. No. 23236) and Modified Lowry Protein Assay Kit (Cat. No. 23240). The standards are prepared at a concentration of 2 mg/mL. They can be stored at room temperature until opened, and then should be refrigerated after opening.

Find additional tips, troubleshooting help, and resources within our Protein Assays and Quantitation Support Center.

The BSA standard should be treated the same as the protein of interest and should be diltuted in the same buffer as the protein of interest. That way, if the buffer itself causes some response to the protein assay, it will be accounted for.

Find additional tips, troubleshooting help, and resources within our Protein Assays and Quantitation Support Center.