The Monster Laboratories Lab Equipment Community

Service Contract News! Cedex Cell Counters, Chemistry Analyzers and the Cellavista!!!

2010-03-25T13:11:00.003-05:00

Good News! And Timely! Just today, since only a few hours ago, I can offer service contracts on the Cedex Cell Counter and the rest of Innovatis' instrument line.

For our friends in GMP/pharma labs, this means an actual, factory-certified service technician can come to your very own lab, and using certified actual parts and training can actually PM or repair your Cedex Automated Cell Counter!

Some have suggested cell counters really don't need regular maintenance, but they usually count chunks of precipitate and consider their error acceptable. Imagine- making pharmaceutical drugs for your children with 'acceptable artifact error'!

Seriously though: I used to work for Innovatis, and I've been inside these Cedex instruments. It's pretty complicated (I work on robots, and I think these are tricky). There's a microscope inside the classic model, with stepper motors connected to the stage and focus knobs.

But then there's the CuBiAn XC Benchtop Chemistry Analyzer- and its precursor the Daytona. These have refrigeration, motor drivers, liquid handling and data acquisition. If you're using one of these in a clinical lab, or in pharma development, you should definitely get it checked out periodically.

THEN there's the Cellavista. This is why I joined Innovatis, and wow it's cool. But nobody in North America- hardly anybody in the world knows how it works or how to fix it!

We're looking forward to traveling to Puerto Rico and Japan, but right now domestic laboratories (US) with Innovatis products should contact Monster Laboratories for a service quote.

Application Support for Laboratory Robots

2010-03-22T13:58:00.003-05:00

Looking for ways to let academic labs and startups know about a service I offer. For a few years, I've been installing and troubleshooting robots in the lab. I've handled most brands, most models, and I've actually worked in the lab performing the work the robots are expected to do.

It's not all obvious. Someone with a pretty good background could probably work their way through an installation, but you'd burn a lot of time. And if you need parts, how can you be sure?

I also train. So when I install a robot, I'll train the users to operate it.

Lab Robotics Application Support

2010-03-19T06:58:00.002-05:00

Monster Laboratories is now offering Application Support in our Training program. One of my favorite things about selling robots is the installation and training part. I really like the manual work, playing with the doodads and set screws, but especially with Tecan instruments, the transition from wonderment to 'I can't wait to use this!' is gratifying.

I've spent a decade using and fixing and installing robots and training people to a starting point. Now I want to go the extra step and lend my experience to turning a big, heavy object into an essential member of the laboratory.

PCR prep, plasmid and nucleic acid separation, ELISA, chemistry, all kinds of applications are possible. But the perspective must be a little different than the point of view of the lab tech at the bench, performing the steps one at a time.

Call Monster Laboratories for help getting your robot to do what you want.

Used Lab Equipment and the Computers They Need

2010-02-17T09:07:00.002-05:00

We've been requiring our customers to provide their own PC when they buy an instrument requiring a controlling computer. The reason is simple: I hate computers. I've been through four in the past 6 years. If we provide a computer, I'm pretty sure I'll have to handle support questions, and I don't want to support a PC.

However, due to an ongoing experience at a University- a real one, not some Bob Jones brainwash institute but a major state University, we may have to reconsider.

In December, I shipped a Tecan Genesis robot. Then, at least a month ago, my client placed an order and completed the request procedures to get a regular PC loaded with Windows XP, which is the only operating system we should be bothering with. His request is still bogged down in administration.

If I'd provided the computer, the IT department would be presented with a simple fait accompli. Instead, we set up an installation at moderate but significant expense, and there was no PC. We had to scrounge a loaner from a friendly lab, loaded of course with Win7, so the WinNT software simply didn't work.

These robots run on software using server technology and stacked databases, and most of them were built on Windows NT. The scheduling juggle has apparently gotten a lot faster or more complex. I had to leave without completing the installation properly, even though all the pieces of the application appeared to be working by the end of it.

And, of course, we had to have Charles from the Help Desk come out to the lab about four times to authorize the installation of the software.

So I guess I need a PC tech now.

Tecan Genesis Service

2009-09-02T09:42:00.002-05:00

We really like to work on Tecan Genesis robots. We think they're the best robots available (Of course, the EVO is sweet!), and we have lots of experience in the field, in our shop, and in actual laboratories.

Contact us to see about keeping your Genesis robot on the road. We do routine service, preventive maintenance, repairs and modifications.

PAX,

Used Lab Equipment

2009-09-02T09:39:00.003-05:00

A quick list of newly acquired instruments:

1 Tecan Carousel HS- for Genesis or EVO

2 Cedex automated cell counter (trypan blue exclusion)

1 Packard Multiprobe II HT EX

2 Beckman Biomek 2000

1 Tecan Genesis 150/8/ RoMa- ready

3 EMBLA cell/plate washers from Skatron

We also have several XP3000 dilutors for Tecan Genesis /Freedom robots.

All States World Cargo

2009-07-30T07:29:00.003-05:00

All States World Cargo did a pretty good job shipping instruments for me, at least for machines traveling over 10,000 miles. Recently they carried a pallet to California from Philadelphia. The recipient wasn't there to receive- twice. Still, there is no acceptable excuse for destroying the instrument by mishandling.

This was a Biomek 2000, alone on a pallet. It was padded, and it only weighs about 75 pounds. When it arrived, nuts had walked off their bolts, and the controller board was jostled too much.

We sell Biomeks for $10,000, but this one was supposed to help someone who got a non-functioning unit from another vendor. So I charged him less than that with the stipulation he'd trade it in here when he outgrew it.

In all, AllStates World Cargo cost me at least $16,000 in lost inventory and cash. Shippers don't seem to give a crap when they fail their customers though. UPS screwed me with indifference. A storm in the midwest made their train late or something stupid like that. Professional shipping is one area where accountability is apparently optional.

I'm thinking about suing AllStates though.

Inventory Check 06 2009

2009-06-10T09:28:00.003-05:00

Hi!
Today we have:
TWO Cedex cell counter and viability analyzers, both with carousel-style autosamplers,
TWO Beckman Biomek 2000 liquid handling robots,
One Packard Multiprobe II HT EX,
One Tecan Carousel HS (For Genesis-EVO),
Skatron EMBLA washers,
Plate Readers,
and some molecular biology stuff.

Spring Promotions

2009-04-09T08:29:00.003-05:00

Nothing has been written in about a month. Why? Because I've been busy!
The service program has gotten off the ground, and I'm excited at the prospect of traveling the country with my toolbox.

Meanwhile, our buyer has been busy too. We now have 2 Cedex Cell Counters, 2 ABI 7700 real-time PCR machines, and a few plate readers and robot tools.

If you work between DC and Princeton, NJ, we're covering shipping for in-stock items under 400pounds (the Biomek 2000 is <100!) through May 5.

Automated Cell Counters

2009-03-05T08:40:00.005-05:00

One of my guiding principles is openness. I do not represent any manufacturers, and don't have obligations to any brands. Something you can't get from a sales rep is objectivity. I certainly have some biases, but I'm under no obligation to recommend or buy a machine. The aim of this blog is to provide a user or shopper with background you simply can't assume you'll get from your friendly rep, whose paycheck is tied to the success of one brand, or a line item in the catalog.

Technicians may not really need to know the complete mechanism by which these things work, but they should be able to learn about the difference in the approaches of the various manufacturers in counting cells, analyzing the cell populations and documenting viability and health. So, here's a quickie review of the automated cell counters market as is.

When we think of cell counters, after we block out that hemocytometer, we think of the ol' Coulter counter:
Yikes, right? This is the instrument I used in my Med Tech career. It worked, and was reasonably reliable, considering the importance of service programs at the manufacturer side.

The new instruments in the Z series work about the same way. Assume a pure sample, pass it through a detection apparatus. The detector will be a trip switch of some sort, with a small interruption counted as a dead cell (or platelet) and a large blip a live cell. Theoretically, a frame of reference can be set up to discriminate between a variety of cells, but it will count anything in the size range of a cell. Thus, electronic cell counters are actually Particle Counters.

Scharfe Systems invented the CASY (cell analyzer system) about twenty years ago, and it races past this technology by orders of magnitude. This one is also a particle counter, but instead of a simple "big vs little" count, it measures the particles passing through. Counts are much more accurate, more characteristic of the culture, and more reproducible. Instead of a count of objects falling in specified ranges, the CASY gives a complete size distribution. ASTM determined this one to work, while suggesting the Coulter method does not. If the cell is swollen, for example, it can jump right outside the frame and be omitted from the count. And that size information is important in cancer or virus research. Thus, CASY is better. Cooler too.

But neither of these specifically counts cells. For that, you need to see the object and call it a cell. In the laboratory, this is best done by Trypan Blue Exclusion. Live cell membranes are resistant to stain uptake, but compromised membranes provide sites for staining. With the ol' hemocytometer, this is done under a microscope- quickly. Trypan kills cells, so you have to do this on the quick or skew your viability. You also have to either account for human error or keep the same lab tech chained to the microscope whenever you do the counts.

Innovatis automated it. With the Cedex (http://www.monsterlaboratories.com/cedex-cell-counter.htm), the staining and microscope work happens in about five minutes with insanely high reproducibility. I think it's a function of the algorithms. Beckman Coulter copied the Cedex and introduced a cheaper version call the ViCell.

There are two major differences. First, Beckman uses a carousel you can reach into from across the room. That is the only real benefit of the ViCell (although the Cedex is more expensive at list). Cedex had a carousel-style autosampler, but it was mechanical and has become unreliable. Then they replaced it with an X-Y sampler, which can't be fully accessed during a run. To make matters worse, they introduced a new, improved software package nobody can use.

But the second major advantage of the Cedex is effort. They designed it the right way, suffered to improve it, and kept the technology through their various permutations. A microscope captures images of cells passing through a flow cell in a straight line. Beckman's ViCell delivers the sample to flow call at a 90<°> angle, disrupting larger aggregates and affecting the cells and the cell count. Side by side, you are likely to see different total cell counts, similar viability, but serious differences in the aggregation rate.

Then there's a little gadget from Boston called the Cellometer. I haven't linked this one because I'd rather you used a microscope- but that will change. They call it an 'automatic' cell counter, and it works by Trypan Blue Exclusion, but the work is all manual. You do the pre and the staining. The basic Cellometer model will count the blue vs non-blue particles, and it may be pretty accurate. They sell through distributions, and they aren't friendly in the field, or forthcoming, and I haven't seen any in the lab yet. But they did something crazy: fluorescence is included in the new model. I smell a lot of potential for this, and look forward to hearing more about applications.

But for now, it's either the CASY, the Cedex, or the squint-and-click hemocytometer method.

Roche Gel-Doc system for labeled DNA, RNA, Proteins

2009-02-26T07:30:00.004-05:00

The Roche Lumi-Imager should end the Phosopho-Imager and X-Ray film, and should help us eliminate more nukes in the lab. Fluorescence is pretty sensitive, especially since the emitted light only happens when the analyte is exposed to excitation light, and there is really no risk of contamination, such as a 'hot' fingerprint getting onto the wrong part of a blot. But the Luminescence reaction is the ultimate guarantor of sensitivity and of clean sample.

The luminescence application watches for light emitted as a single molecule is 'digested' by reagent. Photons are liberated from chemical bonds, as typically ATPase breaks a phosphate off.

We'd like this to end up in an academic laboratory, or in a departmental core lab. The footprint is not large, but it stands about 4 feet high.

Roche's Lumi-Imager Brochure

ABI 7700 for Q-PCR- for sale!

2009-02-23T10:12:00.002-05:00

First one is in, second one en route. Shipping doc says it's 439 lbs.
I think this would be awesome for a school biology department, community college or catholic college laboratory.
For reliability, you can't beat it. And the optics are stellar, so you can miniaturize and multiplex. This is a four-color machine, with independent light channels at 96 wells.

I can't believe there will be two here. Must sell!
ABI 7700 Sequence Detection System- ON SALE NOW!!!

There are many, many, many online sources for information about this instrument, so I will only post my own ABI 7700 link here.

Another Beckman Biomek 2000!

2009-02-11T09:50:00.002-05:00

We're expecting another Biomek 2000. It has left and right extensions, and the steel looks very clean.

More soon!

"Real-Time" pcr

2009-02-11T09:18:00.003-05:00

I have customers using robots to purify DNA or RNA, and they usually have a microarray, sequencing, or Q-PCR application for it.

The one I'm thinking of has a 7900 and a 7700. They use the 7700.

I made probes for these machines in 1996 or so. Since then, the technology has built armies of kit providers and applications for the technology, but this is the only robust instrument for real-time PCR. It was made the old-fashioned way. A very reliable thermal cycler (PE9600!) is the foundation. They also had Perkin Elmer's natural facility with instrument technology.

Built like a tank, it has laser excitation. Where the 5700 (optical lid for the 9600 thermal cycler) had a range of 530-580nm,

The 7700 uses a CCD camera instead of 96 PMTs, and there is some edge effect. But the attenuation seen in later block-based qpcr systems isn't so bad here. This, remember, is built for tank work. The right side of the machine is a thermal cycler. That's about all. The left side, that huge cabinet, is for the fluorometer.

Monster Laboratories has two of these.
Stock photo:

Packard Multiprobe II HT EX

2009-02-10T21:22:00.003-05:00

Just got this:

Packard obviously has a legacy name from the robotics world, associated with Carl Creative Systems, the Plate Trak, and the sequencing of the genome. Software is as easy to use as Tecan's.

The really cool thing is the peristaltic pump. One serious lack in some cases with Tecan Genesis robots is the lack of a wash tool. Even the Biomek 2000 has that as an option. And one of our favorite robots, the Qiagen Biorobot 9604 (most qiagens actually) has the peri pump.

I guess it's too crude for our friends at Tecan, but sure can fill a plate fast!

Cedex Cell Counter!

2009-01-24T10:49:00.003-05:00

Cedex Cell Counter with MS20C Autosampler!!

This instrument, just in from a pharma lab shutdown, is the original Cedex from Innovatis. The ViCell is a slightly poorer competitor, sharing some important features in common since the Beckman ViCell cell count & viability analyzer was based on this elegant and robust Cedex design.

Comes with the PC and support, installation and service contracts available.

Also included is a fully serviced MS20C multisampler unit.

Contact us for more information.

!!

Cell counters

2009-01-20T14:00:00.002-05:00

"I've learned a lot about cell counters actually. having worked with Innovatis for a year recently. Those little electronic boxes are probably the future, especially since fluorescence is available now as an analytical mode, but the GMP crowd should stick with the Cedex and ViCell.
I recommend the Cedex, but the extra thousands of dollars really aren't buying much. You get more reproducibility with the Cedex, but it's like an Italian car- needs continual maintenance. Most users have a ViCell on a bench near the Cedex, and users pick their preference."

Support for Tecan Genesis Robots

2009-01-20T13:09:00.002-05:00

Tecan makes the coolest robots, but unfortunately they've rebuilt their brand around a new platform, the EVO. It's a next-generation Genesis, right after the Freedom. I look forward to seeing more EVO units, but I'm not looking forward to seeing an army of perfectly good Genesis robots marching toward the compactor.

Monster Laboratories cares for many in-service Genesis robots, and we look forward to servicing more as the sunset approaches.

If you have a Tecan robot, please drop us a line. We may be able to help you.

Buchi Madness at Triad Scientific

2008-11-03T17:59:00.000-05:00

Buchi Madness at Triad Scientific !

Heildolph Synthesis Tools=> ?

2008-11-03T09:56:00.005-05:00

Sometimes this happens:

A known brand is in an auction lot. The piece itself is outside our area of specialty, but we made a commitment to stock their instruments when we can.

Consider this one:

This is a Heidolph Synthesis tool, PN 552-00000-01-0.

My friends bought it and they can tell it works. But it's an instrument we're not experienced with. Sold as-is, they're asking for $2900.

Email Tom.

Mettler Analytical Balance AT261 !

2008-11-03T09:24:00.005-05:00

Only one of these is in, tested, ready to ship:

1/each Five Place 0.00001 gram Mettler Analytical Balance AT261 Professional Level Analytical Balance 5 PLACE
Delta Range 0-205 grams at 0.1mg and 0-62 grams at 0.01mg, 3 1/8" x 3 1/8" Pan, Very Fast 3-5 second stabilization time, Linearity+/-0.15mg/+/-0.08mg
Includes power supply and PRINTER with Cable. Complete from working pharmaceutical laboratory, Packed in foam at shipment
$ 2400.00 in November - First Come First Served

Email the host for more information about this 5-place Mettler balance: INQUIRIES

About instrument service

2007-12-19T09:09:00.000-05:00

I've been repairing and maintaining instruments since 1992 or '93. I've worked in laboratories, with some very hardcore professional lab scientists, and I've worked for companies sending me into the laboratory. I've noticed that most of the lab cats I've met are very reluctant to twist a screw or bang on a plate reader.

I grew up in the age of picture tubes in TVs. As the television got old, sometimes you had to smack it. That's a pretty gross analogy, but apt. Having been up to my elbows in the HPLC, the DNA synthesizer, having actually bolted the bench to the floor and run Helium or Argon or Nitrogen lines, my experience is hands-on. Meanwhile, many in the lab view a spectrometer as a black box.

I've also worked with a lot of biomedical service people. They typically have in-depth training on one suite of instruments, one brand, or one application. Same goes for most instrument repair people. Sometimes you'll work with a company employing a stable of repair people, and they can actually help across a broad range of issues. Incubators, ovens, laptop computers...

I'm qualified to open the machine, diagnose the problem, and fix it. But the user isn't exposed to this ridiculous background of mine, or to strategy. A busy PhD just wants the thing fixed so the research can continue. I wish to relate two experiences involving the way a user can misunderstand instruments.

First, a customer called for service on a Qiagen Biorobot 9600. This is a very simple machine, and it's a fossil. This one was installed in 1997, run every weekday since. It's a pair of dilutors, plumbed through an arm. Any robot you meet will have a set of motors driving X, Y and Z movement. This one can hold four Z motors, but is only set up with two tips.

Error messages became frequent, and I was able to reproduce them. First thing you do is wash the machine. Dust will foul up anything. So I cleaned the tracks and rails, lubricated it all, and dusted the exposed electronics. In the liquid handling arm is a board connecting to those two Z motors, one of which was triggering the error. It claimed it couldn't reach the spot it was sent to.

There was a high-frequency noise, a whine, coming from there. Pressing the Z rods made it louder. Needs a new Z motor? Needs a new board? I called Qiagen, and they don't have a part number for it, none in stock. But they'd send a quote for field service.

Planned obsolescence is the only way these manufacturers can keep selling new robots. They make some money sending out the service cats, but not the new money public companies need to maintain the value of the CEO's options (everybody should have options, and they should all be concerned with their value, I thought I'd abbreviate.). So at some point, they want even the wonderful 9600 off the road.

After what amounted to a PM, the robot still had the error. I spent about a full day in two sessions working on it, and I tracked the problem to the fault. Finding the part from out here is futile- it would be over 10 years old too. So the 'bot is moribund.

I sent the invoice for my service. It was under $800. Total time invested for me was about 12 hours. The customer balked. Qiagen would certainly charge a lot more, and would also declare the robot dead. I told them to stop getting it serviced, and run it until they couldn't.

So what you pay for when you hire a service guy is service. The experience we bring really is worth something.

First Post. Hello again ?

2007-12-19T08:51:00.001-05:00

This is the first post at this blog. So the real purpose is getting the font right, putting up a picture or two, and figuring out the format stuff.

I've sold used lab equipment for about 5 years, working for myself. Running a small buy-and-sell operation is probably not for me. I like the instruments, and I like the users. I like science. SO I try to hang close to it.

My name is Joe Matthews, and I approve this message.