Discovery Blog

One of the primary problems of traditional stainless steel homogenizer probes is the need to dismantle them in order to clean them and ensure that there is no cross-contamination between valuable samples. This is even more of a problem when isolating "sticky" biological molecules such as DNA, RNA or proteins.

A few years ago Omni International came out with a "disposable" probe (please see below) that was constructed wholly of plastic and was easy to disassemble and decontaminate. End-users had the option of using these probes only once for critical samples or a number of times if the homogenizing conditions weren't too harsh. By harsh I mean homogenizing samples in the presence of organic solvents such as acetonitrile that could crack the polycarbonate casing after a few uses.

In order to resolve this issue Omni have now released a hybrid homogenizer probe (please see below) that  combines the low cross-contamination levels seen with disposable plastic probes with the durability of traditional stainless steel probes. These hybrid probes are constructed of an outer stainless steel tube with an inner Ultem plastic shaft. The plastic shafts can either be disposed of after use or cleaned and reused multiple times. The simple two-piece design makes these probes much easier to clean and disassemble than traditional stainless steel probes and are ideal for applications where chemical compatibility issues are a factor. These new probes are compatible with most chemical compounds including trizol, chloroform, and phenol.

The hybrid probes have been designed to be compatible with Omni's TH, THQ, GLH and PDH homogenizer motors (the A1000SB adapter is required for the TH, GLH and PDH motors). Click on the link above for more information on these homogenizer motors or go to our homogenizer probe catalog to buy these hybrid probes.