> We are currently contemplating the acquisition of > an automated imaging system for crystallization screen plates (96-well).
Thanks to Zolt, Renaud and Catherine from Sanofi-Strasbourg, we bought last year a "Formulatrix Rock Imager". The system is composed of a big box, containing your 96 wells microplates, a computer and a barcode printer, When you want to add a new plate, you define it into the software, a lot of commercials screens are already predefined. You print the barcode and put the plate in a empty place of the container, Pictures are taken on different focusing levels then merged to have a single image. Visualizing your drops is easy, full screen, and the picture is really clean, you score then with the numpad of the computer. You know instantly the condition, and you can see the growth of the crystal (or more useful, proove the dissolution of a crystal in the weekend). If you're not sure you can see and change the focusing parameters and the polarizer in live. By default the image taken is the whole drop, but when a crystal is identified you can draw a rectangle on the image and a optical zoomed image will be take at each next occurrence of the schedule. /Pros/ -Really easy to use, and a real *gain of time* and *comfort*, you can eventually access via a web browser to see and score your plates (you don't need to be on the computer who control the formulatrix). -No vibration (Pelletier). - advanced users can do sql-like request on the imaging database. /Cons/ - The graphical interface is "rich" and you can easily be lost at the beginning. So for large institutes, it will probably an issue, and someone who know the software will probably prepared the barcodes for everyone.. -The worst is that the temperature is regulated, but not cooled. We where expected to put it inside at 22'C and ask a 4'C temperature, it's not possible, to have a 4'C inside the container you need to put the formulatrix inside a 4'C room (or at least 8'C). - You can't (or probably in option) put inside 24 well plates, only robot's plates. Regards, -- Watier Yves PhD Student, European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) Experiments Division / Materials Science Group ID31 high resolution powder diffraction beamline. 6 Rue Jules Horowitz, BP 220, 38043 Grenoble, Cedex 9, France. Office: 10.01.06 Tel. (+)33(0)4.76.88.29.67 Fax. (+)33(0)4.76.88.27.07 http://www.esrf.fr/UsersAndScience/Experiments/MaterialsScience/ID31/
