We use Cartesian Honeybee X8 machines (8 tips). They take about 10 minutes to set a 96-drop plate including the washes of the tips. 3 or 4 drops per condition wouldnt take much longer. Optimisation and additive/detergent screens take a little less time.
The plates are pipetted under a close-fitting cover to (virtually) eliminate evaporation, which IMO is better than a humidity chamber. Consumable costs extend to isopropanol and water, with the occasional replacement valve or tip.
Since people here also tend to turn up at beer o'clock on a Friday evening (must be an Oxford thing...) we have two machines (and another one imminent) to increase throughput.
HTH
Tom
** Tom Walter B.Sc. M.Res. **
** Oxford Protein Production Facility Tel: +44 (0)1865 287747 **
** Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics Fax: +44 (0)1865 287547 **
** Roosevelt Drive [log in to unmask] **
** Headington, Oxford OX3 7BN http://www.oppf.ox.ac.uk **
---- Original message ----
>Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2008 17:10:26 -0400
>From: JOE CRYSTAL <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: [ccp4bb] Fwd: [ccp4bb] crystallisation robot
>To: [log in to unmask]
>
> Hi,
>
> Does anyone have information about how long it takes to set up
> a 96-well tray for the crystallization robots available?
> Besides cost per tray and maintenance cost, another important
> feature we consider is the time for setting up a 96-well
> tray. It is an important factor since we are talking about
> sub-microliter drops.
>
> Best,
>
> Joe
>
> On Fri, Jan 18, 2008 at 12:28 PM, Lisa A Nagy
> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Al's Oil on the plates:
> What a nightmare!!!!!!!
> The oil creeps up the plate and over the sides. It dissolves
> adhesives.
> It makes me say bad words in multiple languages.
> Bigger drops + no oil = fewer bad words.
> Lisa
> --
> Lisa A. Nagy, Ph.D.
> University of Alabama-Birmingham
> [log in to unmask]
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: CCP4 bulletin board [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> Behalf Of
> Patrick Shaw Stewart
> Sent: Friday, January 18, 2008 2:20 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [ccp4bb] Fwd: [ccp4bb] crystallisation robot
>
> One thing that people often overlook is that quite a lot of
> protein
> can be lost by denaturation on the surface of the drop.
> This is more
> significant for smaller drops. Two suggestions: (1)
> increase the
> proportion of protein in the - technical term - teeny drop
> to say two
> thirds and (2) cover the drops with oil eg Al's oils
> (silicone/paraffin). You still get vapor diffusion though
> the oil ,
> and you'd like to slow up equilibration. of course (2)
> slows up the
> robotics a little, but both should be trivial to set up..
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