When you're looking for cell disruption equipment for the research laboratory equipment you need a system that is flexible.
You're probably aware of the final goal of the research program but since it's research, it's all about trying different things out. If your equipment doesn't let you try things out it's the wrong equipment for the research environment.
Flexibility
Some cell lysis equipment uses shear. Others use sonic cavitation. Ours uses shear, cavitation and impact- and the user can adjust the relative amount of each force for different applications or to see which procedure works best for a particular application. You may have thought your research team was trying to produce a biological in bacteria and therefore just needed a sonicator, but when they realize the biologic isn't full active unless processed in an eukaryotic system and switch to yeast you'll wish you had bought the BEE homogenizer instead.
Scalability
Many research laboratory managers don't consider scalability when making purchasing decisions for the research setting. This is one of the reasons the once popular French Press is no longer a viable choice. Because everything is done small-scale in the research laboratory it just isn't a consideration. Let's say your lab started out with bacteria and bought a sonicator. Then they switched to a yeast system. The lab manager refused to buy more expensive equipment, so the team started using an enzymatic lysis method. The purified biologic showed tremendous potential in early experiments. The team proposed to start some clinical trials- which requires scaling up production. However, the costs of scaling up enzymatic lysis of yeast can be prohibitive. The entire research program could be shelved on budgetary grounds before it barely gets started- due to failure to consider "scalability" at the earliest steps. It would be sad if the cure for the cold was shelved because someone decided to not buy a BEE homogenizer.
As a cell lysis device a Pion homogenizer is fully scalable because all of the parameters are tightly controlled and fully reproducible. After the research team spends weeks changing the parameters on their cell lysis unit to find the optimal method of cell disruption, these parameters can simply be used on a larger scale. All Pion units allow for full control over the pressures and fluid velocities being used during the process.
Designed for the lab
For the laboratory setting, Pion offers three different sizes of laboratory homogenizers as cell disruption devices. The largest has a flow rate of 250 ml per minute. It can be placed on a standard laboratory bench and is self-cooling so it doesn't have to take up space in the cold room. The smallest unit can process a sample as small as 15 ml, and offers a wide range of operating pressures to allow for experimentation and optimization. It is also self-cooling and is smaller than many desktop centrifuges. The intermediate size can process a sample as small as 15 ml, but can also process up to 15 liters per hour.
Our cell lysis equipment is the best, whether you want it for the research setting or for large-scale production. Don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.
