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Hello,
Thanks very much to all who replied with their experiences of the Honeybee
961 and other robots - most helpful. I've pasted all the responses below:
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Kornelius Zeth-
we have this robot. My impression is good - but it might be
difficult to handle very small drops (we usually set 200 -
400 nl)
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Peter Moody-
I decided we didn't want a 96 machine (and there are several on the market)
we went for the 8+1 instead, slower but more flexibility
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Kendall W. Nettles-
I used the 16 channel honeybee when I was at Argonne for my post-doc, and it
needed constant maintenance. I haven't used the 96 head robot. We have an
Innovadyne, which transfers from the 96 well block to crystallization tray,
and sets up 100nL drops reliably. We like it quite a bit. I gather it can
also mix up screens, though we have not purchased the software for that.
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Pascal Egea-
one year ago I tested several crystallization robots and in particular the
Honeybee 961 from Cartesian.
We were rather disappointed by the performances of the machine. for several
reasons:
-the dispensing part of the protein is really a poor design. it is prone to
clogging.
-the 96-well head is quite a sensitive piece of work and if the plate is
misplaced you will collapse and crash all 96 needles against the surface of
the plate at once. you can imagine what is to follow after this kind of
"accident"
-the machine is very "thirsty", it need gallons or liters of water to clean
because there is no disposable part so if you want to avoid cross
contamination with proteases or rnases (we handle RNAs) this can be a
concern especially if you have multiple users.
Now if you are looking for a very reliable, clean and user-resistant and
user-friendly machine, I would recommend you consider the Mosquito from TTP
Labetch (they are based in UK). We bought one one year ago and more than 1o
labs at UCSF use it successfully with all kind of targets: proteins, RNAs
and membrane proteins. it works very well in hanging drops and sitting
drops.
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Nicklaus Steussy-
We have the Honeybee 963 here at Purdue. The below criticisms *Pascal's*
are spot on, especially about the protein dispensing system being subject
to clogging by unhappy protein solutions. In addition, the solenoids that
power the protein loop have been failing us on a surprisingly rapid rate (2
in the last year). Finally, getting the technical people here for
assistance is amazingly expensive.
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Isabelle Lucet-
I would agree with Pascal. We have had a Honey bee (earlier version with 16
tips head) for now 2 years and had on going issues with repeating tip
blockage (protein tip). We also have experienced lately some major problems
linked to the main board circuit.
I would therefore recommend crystallization robots such as the Phoenix
(Rigaku) or Mosquito. We have had on trial a Phoenix and we are so far
happy with it. Less hassle, less maintenance and much more reliable.
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Tassos-
Although I am the happy long-term user of a Mosquito - which is an
excellent machine by all means - I think that much of the Honeybee
criticism is undeserved. The bottom line is that in our tests one year ago
it worked really well, and that was a tortured demo model, not optimized
etc etc. I agree with the maintenance considerations (but lots depend on
how you run your lab) but don't forget that the honeybee will dispense
your well solutions as well, not only the drops - to say one thing.
For more info take a look at http://www.bioxhit.org
It already has some overview of what people do for HTP crystallization,
and we will post the comparative tests we did between five machines
anytime now (next week most likely they will be there)
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Beatrice Vallone-
I can not tell you much about the Cartesian Honeybee, but we have just
bought and we had very good comments (and tested ourselves before buying)
the Art Robbins Phoenyx it does the same job of the Honeybee
(i.e. dispenses the reservoir and nanodrops) it is very robust (the
dispensing needles are flexible and do not crash if the plate is not well
positioned) the washing cycle is efficient and it does not clog easily. In
fact it is an adaptation of the Hydra dispenser
The nanodrop dispenser reaches 50 nl minimum vol ( that bit is delicate
though, and one needs to be very careful in order not to break the very
expensive needle, about 2000 €,e.g. by not unplugging the protein
containing tube...).
It is also fast (1-2 min for a 96 wells plate) and therefore there is no
problem with evaporation.
I think that it is a machine to evaluate if the acquisition of a robot is
under consideration. The are retailers in Europe (both UK and Germany, I
think)
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Hay Dvir-
We have been using the Honeybee 961 for more than a year mainly in
screening for conditions to crystallize membrane proteins.
Although its very fast friendly to use, I cannot say I'm extremely
satisfied, as we always have issues with drops or sometimes whole rows
missing. This is particularly common when we use detergents or viscous
proteins solutions.
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NM Burton, Biochemistry
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
