I have long thought about developing an open-source crystallization robot based on the now ubiquitous 3D printing linear motion systems. They are certainly plenty precise for doing crystallization plating. Probably having two heads, a 12-channel syringe system for screen dispensing and a second head for sample dispensing. I'd thought that a non-contact sample dispenser would be the way to go, but that significantly complicates it. Maybe even an added bonus would be adding a USB microscope camera mount to the sample carriage to do visualization.
On Thu, Jan 3, 2019 at 10:21 AM Tim Craig <tim.cr...@harkerbio.com> wrote: > The opentron liquid handler is currently in what I would consider an alpha > stage of development in both hardware and software, when compared to more > expensive liquid handlers produced by companies like tecan, hamilton, > agilent, etc. It is considerably less useful due to the lack of software > control as well as hardware like plate readers, centrifuges, multichannel > pipette heads of appropriate volumes. You should think of the opentrons as > the raspberry pi (circa 2012) of liquid handlers. > > The control software is not currently stable, and they release upgrades > frequently that will break working programs. With enough discussion on > their github you can generally get them to fix these kinds of errors in a > couple of weeks. I recently went through a process getting the dispensing > and aspirating speeds to be recognized properly be the software > <https://github.com/Opentrons/opentrons/issues/2773>(they were being > ignored). This will be a critical feature for you to use if you're > handling liquids of different viscosities. > > The OT2 currently does not have a pipettor smaller than the P10, so you > will likely be out of luck on setting up trays, even at a 1+1 uL drop > ratio. If you just want to make screens this robot could be a good option > for you, though it does not have crystallography-centric software to make > pipetting the correct solutions easy. > > We are currently using it to do phytip purifications of proteins in small > scale, and it seems to be doing the job reasonably well after all the bugs > have been worked around, which took a significant amount of time. > Enjoy, > -Tim > > On Tue, Jan 1, 2019 at 10:01 AM Artem Evdokimov <artem.evdoki...@gmail.com> > wrote: > >> Good morning and Happy New Year to you >> >> In brief, it can be used to create screens although programming multiple >> ingredients with varying viscosities will initially be a fairly steep >> challenge since the software is not specific to crystallization. It can be >> done though and provided that you can re-use protocols (I.e. today you set >> up PEG 3350 versus salt and pH and tomorrow you set up PEG 6000 versus salt >> and pH without changing concentrations) it can even be effective. >> >> You would likely need to write your own code for gradients and suchlike >> but maybe you can borrow from existing protocols a bit. It is all in Python >> anyway. >> >> I would not use this robot for setting drops unless there is so much >> protein available that 1ul + 1ul drops are not wasteful. The pipettors are >> essentially the same (in terms of tolerances and volume limits) as your >> average wet lab hardware. Now, if you have a willing colleague with >> mechanical and coding mojo at your disposal you can probably modify the >> robot to use a crystallization friendly operating device, assuming you can >> get a hold of an accurate sub microliter dispenser with an open API. The >> robot API is open towards change. >> >> In a nutshell this robot is sort of like a large 3D printer chassis with >> a deck and pipettors bolted on. If you love to tinker this is a machine for >> you. Cannot beat the price. >> >> Artem >> >> On Mon, Dec 31, 2018, 12:46 Doug Juers <juer...@whitman.edu wrote: >> >>> Hello All, >>> >>> I've just learned about the opentrons pipetting robot, which appears to >>> be quite affordable relative to other robots. I'm wondering if anyone here >>> on ccp4 bb has any experience with it - for creating crystallization >>> screens and/or setting drops? >>> >>> Best, >>> Doug >>> >>> >>> ------------- >>> Douglas Juers >>> Physics Department >>> Program in BBMB >>> Whitman College >>> >>> ######################################################################## >>> >>> To unsubscribe from the CCP4BB list, click the following link: >>> https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=CCP4BB&A=1 >>> >> >> ------------------------------ >> >> To unsubscribe from the CCP4BB list, click the following link: >> https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=CCP4BB&A=1 >> > > > -- > Tim Craig PhD > Chief Scientific Officer - HarkerBIO > Mobile: (661) 993-5576 > tim.cr...@harkerbio.com > > ------------------------------ > > To unsubscribe from the CCP4BB list, click the following link: > https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=CCP4BB&A=1 > ######################################################################## To unsubscribe from the CCP4BB list, click the following link: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=CCP4BB&A=1
