This filter manifold and this filtration paper were used by Robert Lefkowitz and Brian Kobilka in their studies of cell surface receptors. To study the receptors, they developed radioligand binding methods. After incubating membrane fractions from tissue with radioactively labelled ligands, they would pass them through small glass fibre filter discs which captured the membranes and let everything else pass through. In the filtration manifold could hold twelve filters. The filters were then washed, the radioactivity measured and the receptors found.
Robert Lefkowitz donated the filter manifold and the filtration paper to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2012.
