I second Vaheh, been using Nanodrops at three different locations and have been happy with them plus reproducibility of results. If you have 50 mg/ml you'll need to dilute, but we rarely get that high anyhow.
Additionally you safe time. If you had a cuvette based system, you should always clean before and after yourself and the time it takes to do that is wasted. With the Nanodrop simply use a Kim wipe and EtOH before and H2O after your protein followed by EtOH. Jürgen On Jun 16, 2011, at 3:43 PM, Oganesyan, Vaheh wrote: I completely disagree with Filip’s assessment. I’ve been using nanodrop nearly 5 years and never had inconsistency issues. If you work at reasonable speed (if you put a drop there then lower the lever and click measure before you do anything else) there will be no issues. At very high concentrations the accuracy and therefore consistency may become lower. Concentrations between 5 and 10 mg/ml should be fine. The instrument is pricey though. Vaheh ________________________________ From: CCP4 bulletin board [mailto:CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK] On Behalf Of Filip Van Petegem Sent: Thursday, June 16, 2011 3:34 PM To: CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK<mailto:CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK> Subject: Re: [ccp4bb] Nanodrop versus Nanophotomter Pearl versus good old Bradford. Dear Arnon, the Bradford method is not recommended for accurate measurements. The readings are strongly dependent on the amino acid composition. A much better method is using the absorption at 280nm under denaturing conditions (6M Guanidine), and using calculated extinction coefficients based on the composition of mostly Tyrosine and Tryptophan residues (+ disulfide bonds). This method is also old (Edelhoch, 1967), but very reliable. One thing about the nanodrop: smaller volume = more evaporation. On the demo we've had, I was so unimpressed with the precision (>25% variability between two consecutive measurement) that we didn't consider this instrument at all. So unless you just want a 'rough' estimate, I wouldn't recommend it at all. But most respectable spectrophotometers will take cuvettes with 50ul volumes - a big step up from 1ml volumes... Filip Van Petegem On Thu, Jun 16, 2011 at 12:15 PM, Arnon Lavie <la...@uic.edu<mailto:la...@uic.edu>> wrote: Dear fellow crystallographers - a question about spectrophotometers for protein concentration determination. We are so last millennium - using Bradford reagent/ 1 ml cuvette for protein conc. determination. We have been considering buying a Nanodrop machine (small volume, no dilution needed, fast, easy). However, while testing our samples using a colleague's machine, we have gotten readings up to 100% different to our Bradford assay (all fully purified proteins). For example, Bradford says 6 mg/ml, Nanodrop 3 mg/ml. So while it is fun/easy to use the Nanodrop, I am not sure how reliable are the measurements (your thoughts?). So QUESTION 1: What are people's experience regarding the correlation between Nanodrop and Bradford? While researching the Nanodrop machine, I heard about the Implen NanoPhotmeter Pearl. So Question 2: Is the Pearl better/worse/same as the Nanodrop for our purpose? Thank you for helping us to advance to the next millennium, even if it is nearly a dozen years late. Arnon -- *********************************************************** Arnon Lavie, Professor Dept. of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics University of Illinois at Chicago 900 S. Ashland Ave. Molecular Biology Research Building, Room 1108 (M/C 669) Chicago, IL 60607 U.S.A. Tel: (312) 355-5029<tel:%28312%29%20355-5029> Fax: (312) 355-4535<tel:%28312%29%20355-4535> E-mail: la...@uic.edu<mailto:la...@uic.edu> http://www.uic.edu/labs/lavie/ *********************************************************** -- Filip Van Petegem, PhD Assistant Professor The University of British Columbia Dept. of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 2350 Health Sciences Mall - Rm 2.356 Vancouver, V6T 1Z3 phone: +1 604 827 4267 email: filip.vanpete...@gmail.com<mailto:filip.vanpete...@gmail.com> http://crg.ubc.ca/VanPetegem/ To the extent this electronic communication or any of its attachments contain information that is not in the public domain, such information is considered by MedImmune to be confidential and proprietary. This communication is expected to be read and/or used only by the individual(s) for whom it is intended. If you have received this electronic communication in error, please reply to the sender advising of the error in transmission and delete the original message and any accompanying documents from your system immediately, without copying, reviewing or otherwise using them for any purpose. Thank you for your cooperation. ...................... Jürgen Bosch Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute 615 North Wolfe Street, W8708 Baltimore, MD 21205 Phone: +1-410-614-4742 Lab: +1-410-614-4894 Fax: +1-410-955-3655 http://web.mac.com/bosch_lab/