New Honeybee system creates industry buzz

The Honeybee 961 from Genomic Solutions is a high-speed bench-top system for the miniaturisation of protein crystallisation experiments. The technology uses a sitting drop technique that enables walk-away automation, with precise dispensing into both reservoirs (100 micro-litres) as well as shelves (as low as 100 nano-litres) using a single system.

Researchers are able to conserve protein samples by working with nanolitre volumes while maximising chances of crystal growth. The system integrates 96-channel high speed dispensing of precipitant with non-contact synQUAD nanolitre dispensing technology to prepare a crystallisation plate. This design approach avoids cross-contamination without the cost and random errors in systems requiring disposable tips.

High-throughput protein crystallography involves using many of the automation concepts from High Throughput Screening (HTS). The liquid handling requirements are similar to those for HTS, which include low volume. Traditional crystallography plates have 24 or 48 wells with well volumes of 100's of microlitres. For higher throughput, the number of wells has increased to 96 or 384.

High Speed is essential for preventing evaporation, which can change the concentration of the mother liquor. In addition, when the protein is added to the drop of mother liquor, effective mixing must occur. For a drop of 1 mL, this can be difficult. The Honeybee 961 takes approximately 2 minutes to complete a 96 well plate minimising this risk.

The system comes with software to set up multiple sitting drop crystallisation experiments with 'click and play' functionality. A library of definitions for most commercially available plate formats is included in the software allowing simple set up of screens into the user's choice of plates.

The system set-up supports all commercial plate formats and is ideal for labs with multiple users. The software is specifically designed for programming protocols for sitting drop crystallisation experiments.

The Honeybee 961 is part of a family of Honeybee instruments utilising synQUAD technology for protein crystallisation. While traditional protein crystallisation experiments use only one protein solution and a single precipitant, the liquid handling flexibility of the Honeybee's synQUAD technology enables the researcher to also run more complex entities such as co-crystallised proteins, co-factors and inhibitors.

The Honeybee 961 bench-top crystallisation system is available now from Genomic Solutions​