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Thanks to all replied. Below are the replies in the order they were received. Peter Moody: we use the foam polystyrene (sorry, Styrofoam) cubes that molecular biology reagents get delivered in. ************** Harry Powell: I used to use those small insulated boxes for carrying a 4- or 6-pack of beer. You can fit at least two high and fill the small void with bubble wrap. ************** Bernhard Rupp: I use with great success the thick-walled, dense Styrofoam shipping containers in which the cooled stuff from Qiagen, Biorad etc comes (your biology department will have many of those). A few cold packs of proper incubation temperature added, they lasted for 5-6 hr car/air trips easily. Warning on airport issue: The leaded plastic curtain hanging down in front of the X-ray machine turns the boxes over when they are put into trays on the belt..... *************** Robert Crowther: Not elegant, but we used to use the styrofoam boxes they use to ship enzymes in. Line the bottom with some paper towels, place the trays in as full as they fit comfortably, then wedge them in place with either more paper towels or strips of foam rubber, and another layer of paper towels on top. We would also wrap up a frozen blue ice container or two and put them in along the side and or over the top just to keep the temperature from going too high in case there is a lot of passive heating. If you have to use 4C temps, put the carrier in the cold room overnight before putting in the trays, and definitely put in enough blue ice to keep it cold. (We even resorted to ice cubes wrapped in several plastic zip lock bags, but that can be sooo messy if it leaks. Such packages easily made it for a 100 mile jaunt, and even once made it to France. I don't know what you're doing with the crystals once you get to your destination, but if you're going to shoot crystals mounted in capillaries (geesh, does anyone still do this--often anyway; I used to, but I'm badly out of practice with capillary mountings) you can mount them before you leave, place some cotton wads (or pieces of Kim wipes work, too) in the bottom of a 15 ml centrifuge tube, gently place the mounted capillary onto the stuff at the bottom of the tube and fill up the space at the top with either more cotton or pieces of Kim wipe and seal it with the cap. Just be careful not to crush your capillary. The styrofoam stand the tubes are shipped with makes a decent stand for transportation inside a styrofoam container as above. Not sure if any of that is useful but that's the way we used to do it. We almost always freeze crystals nowadays and ship in Dewar, but you're probably doing that too. ************** Andreas Forster: I second Bernhard's suggestions. Find a Styrofoam container that's just big enough for your plates. Pad the gaps left by the short sides of the trays with paper towels, add tools, wands, tubes with cryo protectant, cover slips etc, and you're ready to walk over to your local synchrotron. *************** Judith Murray-Rust: But if you purchase a fairly standard holdall bag, just high enough to hold your favourite styrofoam container, it will be longer, maybe a bit wider too, than the styrofoam thing. The holdall can contain extra insulation if you need, or other stuff for your trip, and doesn't fall over so easily in the X-ray machine. Also doesn't look as if you are carrying a lab-type styrofoam box, and provides a nice strap or handles for carrying. *************** Bryan Lepore: oh, another safety feature is to stuff some Kim wipe into the reservoir to avoid splashes up onto your drop... meaning, open the tray, put the paper in, and seal it back up... *************** Artem: We use a car-plugged Koolatron cooler with a temperature regulator. This way we can set the temperature exactly what it needs to be and not worry about variations. All suggestions are great. Thank you again. Vaheh Oganesyan, PhD Scientist II MedImmune, Inc. One MedImmune Way Gaithersburg, MD 20878 USA Phone: (301)398-5851 www.medimmune.com -----Original Message----- From: Bernhard Rupp [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, December 06, 2006 12:42 PM To: Oganesyan, Vaheh; 'CCP4 bulletin board' Subject: RE: [ccp4bb]: carriers for crystallization plates I use with great success the thick-walled, dense Styrofoam shipping containers in which the cooled stuff from Qiagen, Biorad etc comes (your biology department will have many of those). A few cold packs of proper incubation temperature added, they lasted for 5-6 hr car/air trips easily. Warning on airport issue: The leaded plastic curtain hanging down in front of the X-ray machine turns the boxes over when they are put into trays on the belt..... BR -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Oganesyan, Vaheh Sent: Wednesday, December 06, 2006 9:11 AM To: CCP4 bulletin board Subject: [ccp4bb]: carriers for crystallization plates *** For details on how to be removed from this list visit the *** *** CCP4 home page http://www.ccp4.ac.uk *** It will be greatly appreciated if crystallographers will suggest an insulated carrier for crystallization plates for short distance travel (like from one institution to another within ~10 mi distance). Thanks in advance. Vaheh Oganesyan, PhD Scientist II MedImmune, Inc. One MedImmune Way Gaithersburg, MD 20878 USA Phone: (301)398-5851 www.medimmune.com
