JAN 31, 2023

Choosing the Right Bead Mill Homogenization Technology for your Laboratory

WRITTEN BY: Sarah Hoffman

Bead mill homogenization is a fast technology for automatically preparing a wide variety of samples – up to 96 in 30 seconds without cross-contamination, allowing you to spend more time on experiments, analysis and publishing.

HOW BEAD MILL HOMOGENIZATION WORKS

Bead homogenization works by using rapidly accelerating beads of various sizes and compositions within a sealed tube to dissociate a sample upon impact. Upon repeated impact with the beads, the cellular and connective tissue breaks down to release analytes. Human, animal and plant samples with any hardness level can be quickly homogenized, in batches of just a few samples up to about 100 samples concurrently – in as little as 30 seconds. From the extraction of protein from soft tissues, to the extraction of analytes from hard tissue including muscle, skin and bone, bead homogenization is a fast and robust method for grinding, lysing and homogenizing the most challenging biological samples.

BEAD SELECTION

The softest beads, made of silica, are helpful in breaking down tissue or microorganisms. The hardest beads, made of garnet, are the hardest and most robust for breaking down DNA.

ADVANTAGES OF BEAD MILL HOMOGENIZATION

In addition to the ability to customize the bead media, bead mill homogenization brings other advantage to the process:

TWO KEY BEAD MILL FEATURES

Labs cannot tolerate cross-contamination. This is particularly dangerous when your samples contain infectious agents. This is why it’s critical to choose a bead mill homogenizer with a properly sealed chamber (especially if a test tube breaks).

Top-loading bead mill homogenizers tend to increase the possibility of leaks, make it harder to see and access your samples. Front-loading bead mill homogenizers further minimize leak risks and it’s easy to see and access your samples so you don’t miss something.

ABOUT OMNI INTERNATIONAL BEAD MILL HOMOGENIZING TECHNOLOGY

OMNI International can provide your lab with the best fit bead mill homogenizer technology to automatically prep your samples. We can also process a sample for you in our in-house lab at no charge – we’ll even send you a report with photographs so you can evaluate the effectiveness of our bead mills.

From the compact design of the hand-held OMNI THq Tissue Homogenizer to the advanced automation of the Bead Ruptor Elite, we offer powerful homogenization solutions and tools that combine state-of-the-art digital controls and ease-of-use, whether you are processing just a few samples at a time or up to 384 samples per cycle.

Click here to access a list of application notes and webinar. https://info.perkinelmer.com/REG-AGN-GEN-2022-APAC-HostedContent-OMNI-DG-LP

 

For research use only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.