Alternative Sonicators?

[cheezemeister]

I'm setting up sequencing in our lab. Will be purchasing a Nextseq 500. I looked into the price of a Covaris E220 and nearly had a heart attack. It's approaching the cost of the Nextseq!! And the LE220 costs MORE than the Nextseq!! I looked at the M220, which is significantly cheaper, but only does one sample at a time and requires a TON of hands-on time from a technician.

I'm hoping the community here can provide some alternatives to Covaris. I'm looking for a sonicator that can do multiple samples, either sequentially without technician involvement (like the Covaris E220), or in parallel (like the LE220). Plate format is not an absolute requirement. We may, at times, want to do up to 96 samples in a run. I've found Qsonica online and they look like they might be a good option. Any others I should look at?

[IdahoRAD]

All I can add is that I have used the Biorupter, by Diagenode. With the biorupter, I have a hard time getting it to shear in the size range that I prefer, it seems to "over shear," so that when I have to do a size selection, I cut away a good portion of my DNA. With the Covaris, the support is very good and things seem to be well-troubleshooted. I spend weeks optimizing things with the Biorupter, by Diagenode, only to get rather inconsistent results.

[MU Core]

Covaris is releasing a medium throughput instrument called the E2220 Evolution. It is essentially an E220 instrument that will shear in an 8-strip tube format. Cost is ~$60,000. The instrument will be upgradeable to a 96-well format as your shearing demands grow.

I would echo the previous post that the Covaris instrument gives very consistent shearing results.

[SNPsaurus]

Are non-sonication fragmenters out of the question (like Nextera)?

[bilyl]

What kind of samples will you be processing? For many applications NEB Fragmentase could be your best bet even though sometimes it is a bit finicky.

Alternatively, you should look around your institution for a Covaris machine. It's likely someone has one and you can hop in on the service contract if you plan on using it a lot. You can also see if you can pool several investigators together to get an E220.