You are welcome :-) The price for the Qiagen TissueLyser is 5.364,00 € (have a look at the homepage). You have to ask what is the cost in your country (maybe you can get a special offer?!). With small beads (maybe glass beads) it will also work for your small insects, I guess. I extracted DNA from adult codling moth. The good thing is also, that you can choose different grinding times and different tension times. Cheers, Nadine

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Dear James,

in the lab I worked before we had the Precellys homogenizer. It worked very well (we worked with different tissues: plant material, insect material).

Have a look here: http://www.precellys.com/precellys-24.aspx

I don't know the price for the US. In Germany we paid 8200-8700 Euro.

Cheers, Nadine

Thanks Nadine. I did notice that when looking on the web, so it is good to have your practical experience. Very useful! I little bit more expensive than ideal for us, and also only 24 wells, but good, nonetheless. Were you able to use it with microfuge tubes?

Dear James, we worked only with screw cap microcentrifuge tubes (cryogenic tubes). I am not sure if the homogenizer will work with "normal" microfuge tubes because somebody else in our lab tested it and had no luck (they broke). At the MPI we worked with another homogenizer but in the moment I can't remember the company's name. I will ask a colleague on Monday! Maybe that's a cheaper option (and you can homogenize more than 24 samples). Cheers, Nadine

Thanks Nadine, that's really helpful. I saw on the website the pictures of the Precellys with the 2ml screw-cap tubes, and at that stage it did not look obvious that microfuge tubes could be used, hence my concern which you have now confirmed. It would be great to hear the name of the other unit after you talk to your colleague. Really appreciate your help with this. Best wishes, James.

Dear James, the other homogenizer I worked with, looks a little bit like this homogenizer (it's a different company): http://www.google.de/imgres?um=1&hl=de&client=firefox-a&sa=N&rls=org.mozilla:de:official&biw=1366&bih=617&tbm=isch&tbnid=YNYvczQ-xf6_ZM:&imgrefurl=http://www.glenmills.com/dry-milling/fine-grinding/high-speed-mixer-mill-2.html&docid=gwp5bhboGBf1mM&imgurl=http://www.glenmills.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/MM400-High-Speed-Mixer-Mill1.jpg&w=141&h=141&ei=pKUzUeyWD8vLsgbvr4GoBA&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=1071&vpy=12&dur=1271&hovh=112&hovw=112&tx=64&ty=56&sig=105077407648139033405&page=3&tbnh=112&tbnw=109&start=61&ndsp=37&ved=1t:429,r:68,s:0,i:290

I will ask my collegue... :-)

Cheers, Nadine

Dear James, now I know where we got the homogenizer from: It's the TissueLyser II from Qiagen: http://www.qiagen.com/Products/Catalog/Automated-Solutions/Sample-Disruption/TissueLyser-II#orderinginformation.

It worked very well (I worked with DNA from the codling moth, Cydia pomonella).

All the best, Nadine

That's a great help Nadine. I did see this and the TissueLyser LT. Do you have any idea what they would cost? We are mainly thinking of using a unit for nucleic acid extraction from plant material for virus diagnostics, but we also work on small insects, such as whiteflies and parasitoids. Since all current methods are EXTREMELY tedious, an automated system will help greatly. Thanks!

You are welcome :-) The price for the Qiagen TissueLyser is 5.364,00 € (have a look at the homepage). You have to ask what is the cost in your country (maybe you can get a special offer?!). With small beads (maybe glass beads) it will also work for your small insects, I guess. I extracted DNA from adult codling moth. The good thing is also, that you can choose different grinding times and different tension times. Cheers, Nadine

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Super helpful Nadine! Thanks. This looks like a better option than the Precellys

We are using a tissuelyser for various plant materials and/or aphids with 2 ml tubes. It works OK but you have to try a bit which combination of grinding balls and tubes you can use. For fibrous plant material the rimmed balls are better but they are a bit more dangerous for the breaking the tubes (I don't remember the brand...that broke and which one always stayed OK sorry).

Hi Henk-jan,

Hope you are enjoying Norwich! Home of my grand-parents, so a special place for me!

Many thanks for your thoughts. Is there any chance you would be able to find out the brands of the machines that you refer to? Are there others at John Innes that use small footprint auto tissue lysing machines? Thanks a lot! James

Sorry I wasn't clear I used the 12 tube tissuelyser LT most. I know Qiagen and Retsch were marketing other tissue lysers with blocks in which you can put 2 x24 2 ml tubes. I don't lnow if it is Retsch or Qiagen that is selling them now. For RNA I like to do everything frozen so chill block, tubes, balss etc on dry ice for quite a long while before doing a short intense grind.

ANd Norwich is a fine city ;) we have the second sunny day in a row even

If you're looking for a relatively inexpensive homogenizer on the high end of that sample range, there is the "Talboys High Throughput Homogenizer".  That can homogenize in deep-well plates.  http://homogenizers.net/products/talboys-high-throughput-homogenizer

If price is more important to you than throughput, you can get a Bullet Blender for about $3000, and that will homogenize 24 samples at a time.  http://homogenizers.net/products/bullet-blender-bbx24

http://homogenizers.net/collections/bead-mill-homogenizers/products/talboys-high-throughput-homogenizer

Hi All. I had a small query. We are thinking of the Qiagen TissueLyser II. Do you know if the unit uses only Qiagen specific 2 mL tubes or 2 mL microcentrifuge tubes from any brand/supplier can be used on the instrument? Thanks! Madhuri

I am also looking for a good tissue lyser

I am after one also. I need it for kidney homogenisation for hormone analysis. Can't afford a new one. Has anybody got a second hand one for sale? Australia.

We are about to purchase a tissue homogenizer, mainly for zebrafish embryos in metabolomics studies.

Would you recommend

- Percellys 24 Evolution (https://www.bertin-instruments.com/product/sample-preparation-homogenizers/precellys-evolution-homogenizer/)

or

- PowerLyzer 24 Homogenizer (https://www.qiagen.com/us/shop/automated-solutions/sample-disruption/powerlyzer-24-homogenizer/#technicalspecification)

I could think of the different plate options (up to 15ml) as a benefit of Percellys' product.

Any idea?