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<FONT FACE="Verdana">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, don’t 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 won’t be my first purchase but it is on the back of my mind for maybe another grant cycle.<BR>
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Norm Olson<BR>
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Norm Olson<BR>
Cryoelectron Microscopy Facilities Manager<BR>
4107 Natural Science Building<BR>
Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, MC-0378<BR>
University of California San Diego<BR>
La Jolla, CA 92093-0378<BR>
nholson@ucsd.edu<BR>
(858)534-5852 – Office; (858)534-5846 - Fax<BR>
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On 2/8/05 3:28 AM, "Oscar Llorca" <ollorca@cib.csic.es> wrote:<BR>
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We are evaluating the acquisition of a GATAN cryopluger for the vitrification of protein samples for<BR>
cryoEM.<BR>
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We wonder if the automatic blotting device really works and whether it is really an advantage compared <BR>
to a home-made plunger.<BR>
Does anyone have experience in the use of this Gatan plunger?<BR>
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Thanks for the help<BR>
Oscar Llorca<BR>
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<FONT FACE="Verdana"><B>Dr Oscar Llorca<BR>
Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas-CSIC<BR>
</B><I>Centre for Biological Research<BR>
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</I>Ramiro de Maeztu, 9<BR>
28040 Madrid (Spain)<BR>
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Group Web Site: http://electronmicroscopy.cib.csic.es <http://electronmicroscopy.cib.csic.es/> <BR>
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E-mail: ollorca@cib.csic.es<BR>
Tel: +-34-91-534 66 23 ext 4446<BR>
Fax: +-34-91-536 04 32<BR>
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