[3DEM] Gatan cryopluge

[Norman Olson]

Oscar:  I do not have any experience with the Gatan product but I do with
the FEI Vitrobot.  I have been doing cryoplunging of virus samples since
about 1986 and almost all of that time was with a manual plunger.  The
plunger was placed in a fume hood to allow for the ethane to evaporate
safely.  I actually am better doing it manually but that is with over 15
years of experience.  Graduate students, for some reason, don¹t like to
extend their education that long (grin!).  At Purdue we had widely ranging
lab humidity and temperatures which meant that you had to be aware of the
situation and modify things accordingly.  The advantage with an automated
plunger that allows you to set the temperature and humidity is that
conditions are then going to be uniform and the chances of being successful
might then increase.  It also gets the novices productive faster by taking
away some of the variables.  Now that we have moved to UCSD the Vitrobot
won¹t be my first purchase but it is on the back of my mind for maybe
another grant cycle.

Norm Olson
______________________________________________________________
Norm Olson
Cryoelectron Microscopy Facilities Manager
4107 Natural Science Building
Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, MC-0378
University of California San Diego
La Jolla, CA 92093-0378
nholson at ucsd.edu
(858)534-5852 ­ Office; (858)534-5846 - Fax
______________________________________________________________




On 2/8/05 3:28 AM, "Oscar Llorca" <ollorca at cib.csic.es> wrote:

> 
> We are evaluating the acquisition of a GATAN cryopluger for the vitrification
> of protein samples for
> cryoEM.
> 
> We wonder if the automatic blotting device really works and whether it is
> really an advantage compared
> to a home-made plunger.
> Does anyone have experience in the use of this Gatan plunger?
> 
> Thanks for the help
> Oscar Llorca
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> -------------------------------------------------------------
> Dr Oscar Llorca
> Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas-CSIC
> Centre for Biological Research
> 
> Ramiro de Maeztu, 9
> 28040 Madrid (Spain)
> 
> 
> Group Web Site: http://electronmicroscopy.cib.csic.es
> <http://electronmicroscopy.cib.csic.es/>
> 
> E-mail: ollorca at cib.csic.es
> Tel: +-34-91-534 66 23 ext 4446
> Fax: +-34-91-536 04 32
> 
> 
> 
> 


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