1.7 mm Acid Washed Zirconium Beads, 300 gm

OPS Diagnostics' 1.7 mm Acid Washed Zirconium Beads are suitably versatile for homogenizing samples of all sizes from small tissue samples and organisms, such as flies to large tissue samples i.e., human prostate. 

These beads have optimized  bead-beating protocols to isolate DNA from duckweed.  They were used in conjugation with 100 um beads to optimize the DNA extraction from both duckweed and associated bacteria. The 1.7 mm beads have also been used to disrupt numerous plant hosts within the rice paddy ecosystems. A crucial task for analyzing the bacterial colonization dynamics that can differ even among phylogenetically similar bacterial strains.

In addition to DNA extraction, these beads have been used to extract RNA from Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings for the expression of melanin biosynthesis in Streptomyces isolates. And extract quality RNA from Drosophila allowing researchers to perform quantitative PCR (qPCR) or other gene expression analysis techniques to determine how the loss of a gene involved in endocrine regulation of blood homeostasis affects metabolic and behavioral responses at the molecular level. Another unique application of the beads is to extract protein from human prostate tissues to identify protein biomarkers associated with prostate cancer racial disparity.

Zirconium Beads are denser than silica beads, less expensive than stainless steel grinding balls, and inert in most solutions.  Our acid-washed zirconium beads are washed with acidified water to remove contaminants typically found in untreated beads (e.g., dust, microbes, hair), and further baked to remove any organic impurities.