Life Science Instrumentation
To encourage members to pass on their knowledge of the pros and cons of specific types of life science instrumentation, we invited them to share their most frustrating or rewarding experiences with nine commonly used laboratory instruments:
- Microscopy systems
- High-throughput screening instruments
- Centrifuges
- Real-time PCR instruments
- DNA microarray instruments
- Cell analysis systems
- Chromatographs
- Fragment analysis/genotyping systems
- Mass spectrometers
Their remarks are displayed below. Individual comments are paired with the participant's first name, geographic location and job position.
There is a need for a cell analysis system that would analyze samples in a 96 well plate. It is frustrating to run 1000 samples one by one.
Duncan, Africa, Staff Scientist
The Beckman flow cytometry instrument had been one of our most reliable tools for cytometric analysis; the relationship with the reps has been strong and (the company and machine) has fulfilled our expectations. I strongly recommend the use of this platform.
Omar, North America, Post Doctoral Fellow
FACS has good high throughput and combined fluorescent signals, but bad MAC software. I would much rather prefer a PC platform.
Thomas, Europe, Professor/Teacher
Facscan is the best for cell cycle analysis.
David, Europe, Post Doctoral Fellow
Flow cytometry was a technique new to us and I cannot speak highly enough of the support and training we received from BD Biosciences.
John, Australasia/Pacific, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator
There should be smaller, cheaper alternatives for cell analysis, for low throughput applications to make the flow cytometry more easily accessible to a larger number of users. More importantly better and inexpensive software should be made available to analyze the flow cytometric data.
Rahul, North America, Post Doctoral Fellow
We have not had any negative experiences with the BD system so far, the only point is the Mac system for data analysis. In India we use PC mostly, and in the future a PC integration will be much desired.
Robin, Asia, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator
When compared with other systems, BD flow cytometers stand out because of the low cell numbers required for reliable results.
Robert, North America, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator
ALWAYS get a service agreement with centrifuges and order an extra set of gaskets for the rotors!!
Edward, North America, Post Doctoral Fellow
Balance is key to extending the life of a centrifuge.
Donny, North America, Post Doctoral Fellow
Beckman and Bio-Rad are names that are synonymous with quality and performance.
Subramanian, North America, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator
Hope that Sorvall brand centrifuge could last longer than I've thought.
Xiao-Lu, North America, Staff Scientist
I think most people will agree that Beckman has centrifuges in their back pocket. Most labs I have been in have one or two of them and they are most of the time reliable. I have yet to find a better way of running these centrifuges other than the way they are designed to run.
Steve, North America, Staff Scientist
Our Eppendorf centrifuge has some nice features and it's pretty easy to use, but it is not as reliable as we would like. There are times when it won't start spinning and no one can figure out why. We mess with it a little bit and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
Amer, North America, Staff Scientist
So far we have found the centrifuge reliable and simple to use, it meets our requirements.
Christine, Europe, Laboratory Technician
Thermo Electron Benchtop refrigerated centrifuges are well worth the investment!
Barry, North America, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator
Well we bought this Juan centrifuge, because it was much cheaper than Sorvall. In the first week it broke down, they replaced it, and then the software of the replaced centrifuge broke down. So the conclusion is don't buy something just because it is cheaper. You do get what you pay for! We've had our Sorvall for 25 years and it just recently broke down!!"
Alice, Europe, Graduate Student/Research Assistant
Buyer beware: If you plan to use Agilent systems with external vendor data systems (e.g. Waters Empower / Millennium), you may encounter significant compatibility issues.
Matthew, North America, Staff Scientist
Chromatography is still one of the most important techniques to purify and separate biological macromolecules.
Bogdan, North America, Professor/Teacher
Features that are not flexible make for frustrations. Helium device for degassing is not the most convenient option. Proper interfacing is not possible with different detectors, especially fluorescence. Columns of the supplier are not up to the mark.
George, Asia, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator
I so far have had very good experience with HPLC devices. Formerly I was performing Immunosuppressive drugs monitoring from BMT patients, and HPLC helped me to establish accurate drug dosage levels in order to avoid post-transplantation problems. I am comparing results from HPLC with other methods from other suppliers, the results will be evaluated and published afterwards.
Rogerio, Central/South America, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator
My most rewarding experience was when I finally purified my first protein, and was able to see the peaks and say, 'Yes I have it.'"
Rachel, Africa, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator
My overall rank for Agilent Tech of its GC-MS system is very good, both equipment and services. But honestly, they have not done enough for those who do not have sufficient experience. On the other hand, I found that column suppliers usually provide much better post-sale help.
Mingming, North America, Graduate Student/Research Assistant
The GC-Mass of HP (Agilent) we bought one year ago is powerful. However, it has become less useful because recent research emphasizes functional genomics.
Tsan-Piao, Asia, Professor/Teacher
We have only had a few problems with this instrument since we purchased it, and the parts and service were always readily available. The software works well most of the time, but sometimes it gets hung or crashes.
Fran, North America, Medical Technologist
Our most frustrating experiences involve the Liquid Chromatograph and the Mass Spectrometric Detector, especially for us who are working in a developing country. The machine breaks down quite often for varieties of reasons and it is difficult to get our supplier to respond quickly. The down time is sometimes 4 to 6 weeks. This affects the performance of our graduate students and also affects our commercial ventures. I think it is extremely important to initiate an extensive, on-site training program for the operators (hosted by the supplier) as a part of preventive maintenance.
Tara, Central/South America, Professor/Teacher
The most frustrating experience with the Agilent HPLC is the frequent blockage of the needle seat and frit valve. PEEK tubing has been used but frequently leaks at higher pressures and must be replaced with stainless steel. We have also had to have the electronic circuitry attended to a few times in the autosampler.
Wendy, North America, Graduate Student/Research Assistant
The most frustrating thing is the case of seals used in pump's heads. Their replacement has to be done very carefully otherwise pistons can be damaged and that causes big troubles. In principle we found HPLC is a very useful analytical tool particularly for analysis of nucleic acids and their components.
Adam, Europe, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator
The worst of the chromatography systems is always the software. it is programmed for a bad OS (OS2 and then Windows) and has a terrible user interface! This doesn't affect the experienced user but is a big disadvantage for the occasional user, especially for the beginner. I think Pharmacia/Amersham do not realize that they could sell this type of instrumentation to many more people if it would be easier to use. Many people don't even start to use our system because you need to get used to it.
Michael, Europe, Post Doctoral Fellow
Waters has definitely the most advanced software, service and technology.
Simon, North America, Staff Scientist
We have finally upgraded to a BioPilot that has software designed to run on Windows NT. We had previously been using software designed for OS2 Warp for the old HPLC's (non-BioPilot) and Amersham would not develop new software for the old systems. It was very frustrating (way worse than Windows 98/ME problems, if you can imagine).
Stephanie, North America, Staff Scientist
We moved from one lab to another in a separate building. We contacted Waters to move our HPLC and they sent someone new. Apparently, they were VERY new. They hooked up our unit completely backwards. I ended up figuring out how to reinstall the unit. I was quite annoyed.
John, North America, Staff Scientist
We have used Agilent since 2002 with very good results.
Daniel, Europe, Principal Investigator
1. Sometimes it was not easy to communicate with the producer (European point of view), 2. Producer separated himself from suppliers (merchandise), 3. Producer of instrument does not supply consumables.
Radim, Europe, Department Head
Affy technology is superior to other microarray systems. The company has improved its customer relations over the past 2-3 years.
Stuart, North America, Principal Investigator
GE Healthcare instruments are more reliable and acceptable!
Jaspal, Asia, Quality Assurance/Quality Control
Good instrumentation.
Soualhine, North America, Post Doctoral Fellow
I think that software and firmware upgrades for any expensive instrument should be provided free or at a very minimal cost indefinitely. I will not (re)purchase from companies that produce upgraded software that is incompatible with expensive instruments, or where the instrument cannot be upgraded to new capabilities with the new software at an extremely small additional cost. Also, the service costs and service contracts are outrageous. It's time to start charging fair prices for repairs and parts.
Peter, North America, Staff Scientist
In our experience, when spotting your own arrays, it is better to spot three or four 40-mer oligos spaced along the gene than one cDNA from the gene. That way you reduce cloning and cleanup time and expense. With oligos you can target conserved or variable regions of the gene of interest so that gene families can be detected if present.
Steve, Australasia/Pacific, Post Doctoral Fellow
Our microarray scanner needed the lasers re-aligned, and the manufacturer would not do this on-site. We were told to ship the part to Axon and they would return it after aligning the lasers. However, documentation seems to indicate that bumping or jarring the equipment can cause the lasers to fall out of alignment, so it seems strange to me that an instrument that requires delicate handling of this part would suggest it to be shipped through FedEx. Our lasers are still not aligned properly, and we have had to adjust the software settings to compensate.
Alicia, North America, Staff Scientist
The software that is used for analysis of the microarrays is not very user friendly. Any training we have been given is okay, but more has been required.
Steven, Europe, Post Doctoral Fellow
We are strongly considering an Illumina Bead Station, which can do both microarray expression and high throughput genotyping.
Margit, North America, Principal Investigator
We are very happy and satisfied with the instrument from this company.
Rauf, North America, Quality Assurance/Quality Control
When working with a two color array, it is extremely important to make sure the 2 images (Cy3 and Cy5) can be exactly superimposed. Some software allows you to do this but some do not. It would be nice if a scanner automatically corrects for these image shifts"
Paul, North America, Staff Scientist
Applied Biosystems sequencing/genotyping systems are very reliable and robust. I got plenty of data but price per sample, level of high-throughput and supplied software could be improved. At least this is my experience, and since last year my department has switched to MegaBACE technology that improved some of weak points from Applied Biosystems. Robustness of MegaBACE is not so good for BAC end sequencing or similar analysis, as it is with Applied Biosystems.
Dragan, Europe, Post Doctoral Fellow
I am quite satisfied with the Beckman CEQ 8000 and I find the Beckman people to be so much more supportive than ABI. Prior to the CEQ, we were using an ABI instrument with Amersham chemistry for our sequencing and genotyping. The CEQ results are of slightly lower quality (peak heights are not uniform, reads a bit shorter), but I still prefer this instrument because of its reliability, ease of use and cost.
Stephen, North America, Principal Investigator
I did not initially want our lab to purchase the Beckman-Coulter genotyping system. In fact, we purchased a second instrument of a competing brand for my use. However, after a half year of observing how user-friendly the Beckman CEQ was, I switched my allegiance completely, and we gave the other genotyping system to another lab. The Beckman instrument is particularly suitable for research situations with multiple users. It is so intuitive to use that we allow our high school interns to run it independently once we have trained them. They are able to generate publishable data on it, and can do quite a bit of the data analysis.
Sue, North America, Staff Scientist
In medical diagnostic fields, cost effective and time effective systems for genotyping would require well defined clinical samples!"
Krzysztof, Europe, Administrator
We use the fragment length analysis for diagnostic testing of human genetic diseases. We are required to follow and meet regulatory guidelines. Also, we need to achieve 100% accuracy in the results we report on our patients. The most rewarding experience has been the reliability of the results and the consistency of the system; of course we spent a lot of time to make the system work to meet our specification and requirements. The most challenging piece was the time it took to train our technicians so that everyone mastered the technology to meet our strict requirement of consistent and accurate results.
Ponmani, North America, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator
Software is not well maintained, it has many bugs and is not long-term supported.
Wolfgang, Asia, Professor/Teacher
The ABI fragment analysis/genotyper system we have is no longer supported.
Hannah, Europe, Principal Investigator
The more complex the machine, the more time is needed to get the machine lab-operational. This means wasted samples and human resources. I would purchase such a machine if the company then is able to show with my samples and their human resources that it works...that saves me time and avoids the usual company puffery.
Richard, North America, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator
We have had great difficulty getting quality results from the black dye.
Dana, North America, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator
FDA has recalled Galt and GAO kits.
Larry, North America, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator
It is frustrating to learn that a new model is going to be on the market and not be informed about this model or new models during purchase. We could have been informed about the new options and re-evaluated our decision.
Turkan, Europe, Professor/Teacher
I'm disappointed with PE for slowness when it comes to maintenance problems on a minitrak.
Teresa, North America, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator
Ingredients for a good HTS instrument are essentially reproducibility, flexibility and company support.
Elio, Europe, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator
It takes a long time to get automation ready for "prime time."
Peter, North America, Post Doctoral Fellow
One of the most rewarding experiences in purchasing equipment is the purchase of Viewlux from Perkin-Elmer at its prototype state. This instrument proved itself worth the money we spent and is the workhorse in the lab.
Usha, North America, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator
The CEQ 8800 instrument seems to be the most versatile in applications when compared to similar analysis instruments.
Mike, North America, Staff Scientist
This instrument is reliable and dependable. It helps us to successfully finish a lot of experiments.
Yuan, Asia, Graduate Student/Research Assistant
We've found our Beckman HTS instruments to be very flexible and reliable. Yes, they break down occasionally (usually when it really hurts!), but they are very robust. The decks are very adaptable and there are many modes that can be employed to perform just about any function if the end user is creative.
David, North America, Staff Scientist
We use a commercial chemical ionization mass spec ABB Extrel C50 for kinetic studies. I have found that it is one of the best mass specs that is suitable for this kind of study because of its high sensitivity and mass resolution.
Andrey, North America, Staff Scientist
As with most equipment that you rely on, it works well most of the time until you absolutely need it to, then it breaks. Anytime I have to run more than 30 samples at a time something invariably goes wrong, and always just after I've left the building.
Sara, North America, Staff Scientist
Connecting to LC system.
Edmund Moses, North America, Professor/Teacher
I have used the Ciphergen system for 4 years. I have to admit I am addicted to this machine and its technology, and its potential. I heard a lot of people giving negative feedback about this technology. A lot of them use the 2D gel and MALDI-TOF approaches. It is sad that today no one seems to be able to talk together without having to insult each other by saying that they do not believe in their results, that everything is an artifact... I do believe that both approaches are complementary and should be used in tandem. From discovery of biomarker patterns to the identification of the proteins of interest: none of these can be done only by one technology. Whatever some people think, SELDI-TOF and MALDI-TOF must work together for the benefit of everyone, as long as personal appreciation is put on the side.
Myriam, North America, Post Doctoral Fellow
Mass spectrometers have made protein structure analysis so much easier than what it used to be in the early days of biotechnology.
Maninder, North America, Department Head
Mass spectrometers have been ubiquitous in today's life science lab. Their price tags have remained fairly steady (and high) over the years, although the features they offer have increased dramatically. You do need to be careful, however, that you buy the instrument you NEED as opposed to the instrument you WANT. A multitude of add-on's and extra features might sound attractive, but they can add to the complexity of the instrument and how easy it is to operate. The KISS principle works well when you're looking at spending the "kilo-bucks" required to play in this game.
Mark, North America, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator
Once upon a time we had a sector/ion-trap hybrid in our lab. Due to the make and model of the Turbo pump on the source, electrospray caused pump failures. Eventually we lost boards and finally we even lost the magnet. Thermo agreed to trade this defunct Goliath for a brilliant reliable electrospray ion trap. The sector hybrid had been the best choice on the market for its time. The Thermo DECA is timeless in comparison!"
Mary, North America, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator
Our experience with a Mass Spectrometer purchased from Perkin Elmer has been excellent. When any new highly sophisticated instrument is installed, it is obvious that some problems have to be faced, but Perkin Elmer has been helpful in excellent ways. We just have to call them and very soon, they are there with a solution.
Manjeet, Asia, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator
Perkin Elmer is really good and efficient.
Arun, Asia, Principal Investigator
The after sales services of some manufacturers (like Thermofinnigan) are extreme bad because of bad quality engineers, particularly in cases where they are starting the venture in a country for the first time or through agents.
Suni, Asia, Principal Investigator
The most frustrating experience is trying to mass-spec a band that is clearly on the gel and having the machine fail to get an identity. This may or may not have something to do specifically with the brand that we have (we don't know as we have not blown the money in a new different one just to compare), but it is quite angering.
Eric, North America, Post Doctoral Fellow
We are extremely interested in obtaining a mass spec that will help our efforts to discover and deploy disease biomarkers in human blood plasma. Some interesting possibilities are available, but it seems more effort in this area by instrument companies would be very valuable - to scientists and to patients (eventually).
William, North America, Professor/Teacher
Compatibility with software from other companies is a pretty hot issue for us-sometimes one has to use what one has, especially in the academic setting, and that applies to software.
Anna, North America, Staff Scientist
I am a bit disappointed, though it is still in the early days, with the service provided with the Zeiss Apotome system. The microscope and software are really a very good innovation that could replace Confocal Microscopy in many situations. However, it seems to have a lot of calibration problems and the technical support provided is between poor and non-existing, relying more on the good will of the person installing the microscope and software. "
Susana, Europe, Post Doctoral Fellow
I love our Zeiss system, but our rep has been lousy and it's been difficult to get the system running optimally. I would have expected better technical service from Zeiss.
Rose, North America, Graduate Student/Research Assistant
Instrumentation is often oversold and fails to perform to required standards when purchased. I think it is very important to have hands on experience with experimental samples before committing to the purchase of an expensive instrument. If the instrument is really cutting edge, and the purchaser is really acting as a beta tester, then excellent technical support is essential.
Janet, North America, Principal Investigator
Confocal laser scanning microscopy is not so straightforward; it requires training and experience, just like mass spec.
Dubravko, Europe, Graduate Student/Research Assistant
More exposure towards digital photography for microscopes.
Seshagirirao, Asia, Professor/Teacher
My most frustrating experience is when the immunofluorescence fades during the taking of pictures.
Willias, Europe, Post Doctoral Fellow
So far, we've found the Olympus equipment as the best for our needs.
Hafiz M. Sohail, Asia, Post Doctoral Fellow
The first time I used FISH, I was really excited about the visual results!"
Ryan, North America, Graduate Student/Research Assistant
The microscope and accessories should be used by a limited number of people.
Karel, Europe, Staff Scientist
We always need cost-effective, powerful, custom-made system to address our great challenges. With these we could gain new insights into true nature.
Zhiwen, Asia, Laboratory Technician
We currently use two Leica Confocal Systems, purchased ~1 year apart, and have been impressed with technical support and maintenance, even though the problems have generally been mild.
Joseph, North America, Graduate Student/Research Assistant
We have had demonstrations by Olympus, Nikon, and Leica. Zeiss exhibited very poor follow up, so no demonstration. The reps that are most ""there"" are those of Olympus and the fellow for Leica. The optics seem comparable for our purposes.
Constance, North America, Principal Investigator
Electrical supply fluctuations seem to cause frequent problems- any simple solutions?
Tim, Europe, Staff Scientist
I find this instrument very easy to use/set up using their ready-made assays. My only complaint is I think the software is quite limited in terms of graphing your results.
Zoe, Asia, Post Doctoral Fellow
I was very frustrated by Roche removing many of their real time PCR kits after I invested many technicians' hours validating said kits.
Anita, North America, Staff Scientist
The Cephaid smart cycler does all that the company claims that it will. It is a nice, friendly and flexible system. One setback for extended flexibility that is inherent in the design (and price) is the limitation of not cooling below room temperature. On a general qPCR, qRT-PCR setback - if screening a number of targets it is convenient to use CYBR green detection. In our experience it is a good idea to run the products on a gel, as the melt curve can be deceptive. The melt curve might look good but a gel shows a different product size than the known and expected size.
Anthony, North America, Staff Scientist
The cost of the premix CYBR green solutions are dropping in price and can be made in house to save considerable costs.
Jon, North America, Staff Scientist
The most frustrating thing about the Real-time PCR machine is that we have very poor technical support from our supplier in my country.
Tertia, Africa, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator
The Opticon system has had problems almost from the start - mostly with the PCR machine - computer interface. Repairs take forever and require us to pack and ship the instrument and computer. After two repairs it still is working only intermittently. This company has recently been bought out by Bio-Rad, so hopefully things will get better. A frustrating experience overall.
Joseph, North America, Professor/Teacher
The primer software program that runs in our equipment is outdated and there is no way of getting in the new software, as it won't accept it. Hence it makes it difficult while designing primers.
Aparna, Europe, Post Doctoral Fellow
The purchasing process of Applied Biosystem is horrible. The website design is complicated and difficult to follow and remember. Lots of the fancy web login system is unrealistic for a scientist to use.
Mingang, North America, Staff Scientist
The Roche's Lightcycler is a very fast PCR machine. The melting curve analysis is a useful feature.
Zen, Europe, Post Doctoral Fellow
The vent on the top of the optical unit immediately over the bulb is *very* important. DO NOT cover this vent! A notebook carelessly left on top of ours melted the vent cover and could have caused a fire.
Ivo, North America, Staff Scientist
There are well named companies providing master mixes for iCycler, which do not work on iCycler because this mix lacks fluorescein. It takes time, cDNA and material before you recognize what the problem is.
Gernot, Europe, Principal Investigator
We are recently experiencing problems with the software. It looks like the software runs only in Word98. So, we have to keep that horrible PC, that is useful for nothing else, and still, everything is extremely slow, with frequent crashes during the experiment. All right, we can upgrade our system, for the budget of 7,500.00. I think it's a little bit too much. They should study a little bit more comprehensive ways to help the customer. I mean, the whole system was $25,000.00, and the upgrading proposal costs 1/3 of the price of the system. I can't understand where this comes from.
Cecilia, North America, Staff Scientist
We have a Bio-Rad system, which works well with Bio-Rad PCR mixes. But other companies like Applied Biosystems (ABI) supply a greater range of reagents like the TAQMAN gene expression assays for almost every human gene. I would love to use these ready made probe and primer mixes from ABI rather than prepare my own. But the catch is Applied Biosystems uses a different PCR mix for their gene expression assays, which they say is optimized for the ABI machines. They provide no recommendation or help for using their reagents on the Bio-Rad system. Bio-Rad also does not show much interest in helping their customers to optimize the iCycler's settings for other parties' reagents. I am pretty sure the R&D people in these companies use other parties' PCR reagents and machines to evaluate their own reagents and machines. But they just don't want to help customers with requests for optimization of experiments with other parties' products.
Vashisht, North America, Post Doctoral Fellow
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