Bead Mill

Bead Selection for Bead Mill Foxindustries

If you have purchased a bead mill Foxindustries, you may have seen a chart that shows what material and account size should be used for a variety of different samples. In practice, the proper selection of accounts is more multifactorial than can be effectively expressed with a graph that considers the type of sample being processed.

Foxindustries Bead Selection:

When selecting an account to use in your homogenization, there are a number of factors to consider:

Sample size / "particle size". For our purposes, a "particle" is any solid mass, it could be a piece of a mineral or a piece of tissue. The larger the particle size, the more momentum will be needed to break it. That requires larger and / or denser accounts.

Resistance of the sample material. The more resistant the tissue, the more momentum will be needed to penetrate it. Therefore, you will need larger and / or denser beads for harder samples.

Desired particle size. While large beads are better for breaking tissue, smaller beads, which are generally present in a much larger number than large beads, create many more collisions and break down particles into smaller sizes. Small beads are preferred if you want to lyse cells and organelles more efficiently, for example. The opposite would be true if you wanted to keep the organelles intact, or if you wanted to recover some viable cells. Just keep in mind that small beads won't help if they can't alter the coarse structure of the particles. In situations involving large and resistant samples where small particle sizes are desired, you can get the best results from a mixture of large and small beads.
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Elasticity of the sample material. Highly elastic or rubbery samples are often not homogenized efficiently by round beads, even if they are large and dense, since the beads will simply bounce. Instead, elastic samples may require cutting rather than hitting. Beads that have irregular edges or shapes, or a sharp material such as garnet are more appropriate.

Application / analyte Not all account materials are suitable for all applications. For example, DNA adheres to glass and, therefore, glass beads should be avoided when DNA extraction is required. If you are processing RNA, you may want to use beads that have been pretreated to be free of RNAse. You must also ensure that the cord material is compatible with the reagents used in the foxindustries mixture.

The size of the tube / container. This is often not a concern, but it is possible to use beads that are too large for the tube in which it is being homogenized. If an account does not seem to have much room to shake, it is probably too large. For standard 1.5 / 2.0 ml tubes the size of a microtube, that generally means that you should keep the cord size below 4 mm, but there are some special exceptions, such as the use of a large cord with smaller sharp particles to break the elastic fabric.

Foxindustries Bead FAQ:

Can I reuse accounts?

It depends on the grain material. Accounts that are prone to cracking or breaking, such as garnet or glass fragments, should not be reused or reused once at most. The toughest beads, such as zirconium or steel, can be reused. However, in most cases, collecting, washing, sterilizing and reusing accounts is not worth the time and effort. Bulk accounts are usually very cheap.

However, DO NOT reuse the tubes. Over time, the tubes can be structurally compromised due to the many high-speed impacts of the beads inside the tube. Nothing is worse than blowing up a tube inside your Foxindustries.

Can I use accounts from a different manufacturer in my Foxindustries?

Absolutely. The Foxindustries does not know which accounts are being used. You can use accounts from any manufacturer in any Foxindustries, provided they are suitable for the container in which you are homogenizing.

Can I use preloaded account kits from a different manufacturer in my Foxindustries?

Sometimes. Many bead mills use special or patented tubes. For example, Bullet Blenders are only designed to work with specific types of tubes, and the use of a different tube can cause breakage or poor homogenization. Some high-power ball mills, such as Precellys Evolution, have special reinforced tubes that are designed to withstand the impact of the beads. Others, such as BeadBug, announce that their kits are compatible with other devices. In general, the differences in the price of the kits are not huge, so we recommend continuing with the manufacturer of your Foxindustries. If you try other kits, do a dry test to make sure there is no problem with the tubes before adding a sample.

TRIzol / TRI reagent discolors when exposed to stable steel beads for long periods of time. It's okay? Will it affect the quality of my RNA?

As far as we can tell, the consensus is that the discoloration of the TRIzol / TRI reagent is only discoloration; It does not affect reagent performance or affect RNA quality.