Magnetic bead washers

[Benny Chain]

Does anyone know of a automated bead washing machine which will efficiently work with the Ampure purification beads. I don't necessarily want to buy a whole robotics solution : I just would like to mechanise the repeated bead washes in our protocols, to reduce human error and pipetting time. Many thanks for any suggestions

[cvhove]

hoi benny,

we have adapted a bead purification protocol on the Biomek 3000 platform and have to admit that this works well.

[Chriswinefield]

Hi Benny,

we have just purchased the following item which might suite your needs - we are in the same boat, needing a cheap but effective alternative to a full robotics solution.

http://www.vp-scientific.com/Magnetic_Bead_Separation_Extractor.php

basically works on a 96 well format with 96 finger magnets. You pick up the beads and transfer to a new plate with wash buffer in etc. This will be very fast, with minimal liquid carry over and maximum retention of beads.

[bstamps]

Could you share how much it was? I'm curious how it compares to the LifeTechnologies magnets.

[chadn737]

Hi Benny,

we have just purchased the following item which might suite your needs - we are in the same boat, needing a cheap but effective alternative to a full robotics solution.

http://www.vp-scientific.com/Magnetic_Bead_Separation_Extractor.php

basically works on a 96 well format with 96 finger magnets. You pick up the beads and transfer to a new plate with wash buffer in etc. This will be very fast, with minimal liquid carry over and maximum retention of beads.

I would also be interested in knowing how much this cost you.

[Chriswinefield]

Not a problem - US$2,537.83. I'm not sure how this compares to the Life Technologies offering. As far as I am aware they don't offer a magnet in this configuration, rather they will have a magnetic base that the plate sits on and you then have to move the liquid - this operates the opposite way in that you capture and move the beads.

We are looking to couple this to a Machinary Nagal Plant DNA kit and the tech folk have said it should work well. As I understand it this format of magnetic cpature is used in the kingFisher nucleic acid prep robot.

hope this helps

PS there is a video on the website that shows how the beast works