One-Step Microplate Sonication: Misonix 431-T Tray Horn

Misonix' 431-T Tray Horn Have you ever wished you could be in two places at once or that you had more than two hands? While clever tissue engineering and cloning techniques present a scientifically viable albeit disconcerting possibility, most scientists look to instrumentation for solutions when they have multiple, time-consuming tasks to perform simultaneously. Misonix Inc., a New York sonication equipment manufacturer, has introduced the new 431-T Tray Horn that can help researchers kill 96 birds with one stone. Innovative applications of ultrasound technology have increased productivity and accelerated reactions in ways that previously were not thought possible. From disruption of cell membranes to uniform homogenization of solutions, ultrasonics has been established as an important tool in the biological research laboratory. However, as laboratories become increasingly focused on high throughput and testing of hundreds, sometimes thousands, of samples, researchers are becoming overburdened with repetitive tasks and prolonged incubation periods. For experiments that require ultrasonic homogenization of 96-well microplates, sonication can be a massive undertaking. "We used to sonicate each well by hand with an individual probe," remarks Marianne Huntley, a senior research scientist with Warner-Lambert. "Not only was it a pain because it took so much time, it literally began to hurt my hand holding the probe sonicators." For Huntley, sonication was the only option in her research. "It's critical that we break up the matrices that form on our plates so that we can quantify the number of bacteria present in each sample." Probe sonication of each individual well was a laborious task that required at least 15 minutes for each plate. "Not including the time required to wash the probe," she adds. The Misonix 431-T Tray Horn accessory was "exactly what we were looking for," says Huntley. Users place an entire microplate on top of the tray horn's flattened and enlarged plastic housing, sonicating each and every well in one fell swoop. "Researchers from other labs would walk by all of the 'high tech' equipment that we were using. But they stopped dead when they saw the tray horn," she says. "The concept itself is not very new," notes Misonix engineering manager Dan Voic. "We have cup horns in our product line that can handle up to 2,000 ml volumes." The cup horn design utilizes a large plastic housing filled with water, which transmits sound waves produced by an ultrasonic transducer to large-volume samples. The tray horn applies this concept to a larger surface area, one large enough to handle a microplate. But Voic will tell you that simply enlarging the horn size is no small task. "At 20 kHz, the engineering challenges are substantial," he says. "Our original tray horn wasn't large enough to handle an entire plate. Users had to rotate the plate to sonicate all 96 wells." As the surface area increased, so did the complexity of the horn construction. In dealing with a factor of more than two, Voic and his engineers realized that the new design needed to be carefully thought out. "We actually designed and built an intermediate model in order to verify that we were on the right track." Using finite element analysis models, the team was able to achieve the 2.37-fold increase in just four months. The 431-T Tray Horn presents itself with performance and style. "We didn't cut corners," Voic says proudly. "We brought it to the level where it's really feasible to use in the field." To that end, the tray horn is loaded with thoughtful features. The interface with the microplate has corner notches that hold the plate firmly in place. A threaded ring at the base of the plate holder allows users to raise or lower the height of the plate for an optimal position within the ultrasonic field. Inlet and outlet ports for coolant flow give the researcher the option of a controlled temperature environment. The 431-T Tray Horn is a simple solution to microplate sonication. As Huntley quips, "Just set the program, throw it in, and turn it on." The author, Linn Cook, can be contacted at lncook@meridianlink.com For more information, please contact the manufacturer at (800) 645-9846 or at www.misonix.com.

One-Step Microplate Sonication: Misonix 431-T Tray Horn

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