Dear CCP4BB'ers,
I have received many responses to my inquiry on MRC 2-well plates and
liquid dispensing robots. I also got many messages (and phone calls)
from product vendors, and received a batch of the latest MRC plates from
Swiss-Ci, the original manufacturer of this plate. This latest batch
seems to work, and resolves the issue. What we saw was probably a
one-off batch problem.
There were some of you who mentioned that you have also observed certain
issues with these plates (such as scratched wells - which I used to
observe as well, and bumpy plate bottoms, which is apparently remedied
by sandpapering the bottom of the plates). Overall, there may be
batch-specific problems, but the general design of this plate is very
much favored by our lab people. Thanks for the users' input and the
quick response we got from vendors/manufacturers.
On the liquid-dispensing robot:
Rainin's Liquidator is many people's favorite for dispensing
crystallization reagents, as well as for 96-well assays.
Art Robbins' Hydra, only sold as refurbished models, are also popular
(called "robust" and "easy to use"). Art Robbins still sells rebuilt
models with a one-year warranty (I also heard one person mention that
they got their refurbished model from Alpha Biotech).
There was also one very favorable mention of the Cybi-Well robot from
Cy-Bio.
Thanks everyone again. This has been very helpful.
Engin
On 3/10/10 9:55 PM, Engin Ozkan wrote:
Hi, everybody,
We recently recognized a problem with our Innovaplate SD-2 (a.k.a. MRC
2-Well) plates from Hampton. Our last batch of Innovaplates have an
inconsistent well height such that our crystallization robot (a
Mosquito) cannot put protein in all the wells. When tested with an
older Innovaplate or a hanging drop cover, everything was fine. Is
anybody else observing this? I heard that European customers might be
getting the same plates from a different source/manufacturing
facility. If that is the case, from which company do you buy these
plates?
Another question is about 96-channel pipetting equipment: For
experiments unrelated to crystallography I am in need of getting a
96-channel pipetting machine, such as Rainin's Liquidator. I am also
hoping to use this for transferring crystallization screens from
blocks into crystallization trays (Our robot sets up only the drops,
but does not transfer large volumes of crystallization solutions).
Does anybody use the Liquidator for crystallization reagent transfers,
and if you do so, would you recommend it? I am open to any
brand/model, so all suggestions are welcome.
Thanks,
Engin
--
Engin Özkan
Post-doctoral Scholar
Laboratory of K. Christopher Garcia
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Dept of Molecular and Cellular Physiology
279 Campus Drive, Beckman Center B173
Stanford School of Medicine
Stanford, CA 94305
ph: (650)-498-7111
