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Any researcher who has had to process
samples by grinding tissue with a mortar and pestle, cracking cells by
vortexing, disrupting cells by sonication, or shearing tissues with a
handheld homogenizer understands the difficulty of increasing
throughput. Though these methods are effective, they are usually
best used when there are a limited number of samples. When
higher throughput is needed, homogenization needs to be performed in a
microplate format so that homogenized samples can be subsequently
processed with liquid handling workstations.
With explosions in genomics and proteomics
research, several companies developed high throughput homogenizers,
with the most popular being mixer mills which are also known as bead
beaters. A mixer mill uses balls made of glass, ceramic, or
steel to grind samples. A typical mixer mill will oscillate a
deep well plate or 24 well vial set at around 1500 rpm thus providing
sufficient energy for grinding balls to homogenize the sample.
Mixer mills use one of two motions for shaking samples, either a
"figure-8" paint shaker motion , or a linear, reciprocating motion.
An evaluation between linear and figure-8 motion mixer mills shows
that these instruments have different efficiencies when lysing cells
in microwell plates (see figure).
Data reveals that figure-8 bead beating is less effective than linear
motion homogenization. Furthermore, an evaluation of the lysis
efficiency between wells shows greater variation when using a figure-8
pattern over the more homogeneous lysis imparted by linear motion
homogenizers.
Currently two high throughput
homogenizers are available that provide linear motion bead beating.
The GenoGrinder 2000 and HT Homogenizer fill this niche. For a
comparison of these units
see this link.
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Linear Motion Mixer
Mills
HT Homogenizer
Geno/Grinder 2000
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