The humble homogenizer has made leaps since its early days of inception in Paris at the cusp of the 1900s to blossoming industries such as pharma, cosmetics, and food processing early on. Since then, the value of such technology has been riding the wave of biotechnology development that supports molecular research, coveted by researchers demanding lab-scale, durable, don't-let-me-down workhorse solutions for their tough applications to break through research.
Now, even though you might be a tad bit skeptical of the perceived magnification in the claims above, it's safe to say that the homogenizer has become a household staple for researchers and their second home, ie, the lab. It would constitute a need and not a want for most, as is the case for lab essentials akin to centrifuges and sonicators that keep it company within the square footage of the benchtop.
These days, lab homogenizers may be easy to find within any industry-vendor ecosystem, though those seeking the power, the specialization in support, or the automation to match high-throughput demands might suspect these rare types are hard to spot: not equal, nor should they be categorized as 'all just the same'.
So, let's look at the epic tale when choosing a homogenizer that a 2-min read could offer. As with any Sherlockian investigative work - who, what, when, where, why, and how – here are key considerations when selecting laboratory homogenizers:
Sample characteristics
Are you working primarily with tissues? With cells in culture? With emulsions or liquids? If tough or fibrous hard tissues - not exclusive to animals - a bead mill or rotor-stator homogenizer with powerful mechanical shearing may be a lot more efficient than an ultrasonic homogenizer / probe sonicators usually leveraged for liquid samples or cell culture suspensions for quick and easy simple-sample, single-sample processes.
Application needs
- Will you primarily work with what type of volumes? Small-volume processing in the µL to low mL may be handled sufficiently by bead mills more easily than say, rotor-stator technology with blades and generator probe systems that can scale to easily handle large batch processing in the liters.
- What is your target particle size or end application? What level of dispersion or emulsification? Do you need to reach nm sizes offered by sonicators , µm sizes, or is it primarily bulk homogenization and analyte extraction from biological specimens for molecular assessment?
- What is the temperature-tolerance of your samples or particles or therapeutic agent or vector? Heat can be a byproduct of the kinetic energy that is generated from friction and collisions. How sensitive is your analyte or your downstream data output from these fluctuations upstream?
- Speaking of heat-sensitivity, what about risk to cross-contamination? Sealed systems can offer benefits – leveraged on bead mills that use single-use tubes or mixers and macros with sealed-chambers outfitted for blades and homogenizing probes for large batch processing. Some rotor-stators also leverage single-use plastic disposable probes for an economical per sample cost for projects or highly sensitive downstream assays like PCR.
Equipment features
- As with your application needs, the technology and corresponding instruments are designed with must-haves or accessories that helps where you might need it most.
- Will you leverage active-cooling systems or pulse-mode operation functions - and how would you implement - during operation? Bead mills may offer the power, the fast processing, plus some models also come with cooling systems to collectively reduce sample-heating compared to rotor-stators or sonicators that can be high-energy producing and hence, be more heat-generating.
- Rotor stator-based solutions may be your technology of choice due to flexibility in scaling to larger-volume processing, or offering a range of gentle mixing through high-shearing, or be most amenable to automation and feeding into liquid handling systems within your diverse orchestra of sample prep workflows.
- Perhaps particle size or nanoparticle dispersion is your biggest bottleneck and you need to supplement your fleet with another probe sonicator.
- Or perhaps, you support a throughput that necessitates a party or guild of diverse tech to collectively fulfill the mission.
Usage and maintenance
- Once you have the vision, the day-to-day practicality usually hits fast & furious. What is the ease of use or the maintenance required? How 'blunder-proof' is it? What does the downtime look like in the best case and worst case?
- What is your budget, your user-base, and model or brand affiliation of choice, if any?
Browse our Omni homogenizer portfolio and connect with our people… the ones who've proudly supported researchers for over 65 years.
True, some may say this investigation may not rival the likes of Holmes, Poirot, Miss Maple, or even Scooby and the gang, we want to be there for you… if only on the sidelines to support the rigor behind the scientific method to kickstart your own incredible path to discovery.
