Phoenix is a dispensing robot. We use her to set up crystallization plates (I hope I've educate you guys enough on what is crystallization already). So in the plate, we will put in crystallizing solutions and our protein sample. Then, we will keep our fingers crossed that some crystals will pop out very very soon!
And because we are screening, we do it in small volumes (can save a lot of resources ehh..). And, this beauty will help us do it! The small volumes are like 0.1 uL (do your own maths and you'll understand how tiny the volume is!!!). And, we screen 96x3 at the same time. So, now you understand why we need robots? Haha.
She will pick up our screen solutions (that's the crystallizing conditions for our proteins) and dispense into our 96 wells plate.
After that, another needle will take our protein and dispense into the drop wells. At a super fast speed! =D
After that, we will seal up the plate to ensure a closed environment for our crystals to be!
And then, we'll check our drops under the microscope to make sure that our beauty had done her job properly.
And then, we will repeat the steps again to set up more plates. Maybe we can change the screening solutions or the proteins, etc. Because screening means we are trying to look for the best condition(s) that can crystallize our proteins! And we also screen several proteins at a go.
After setting up all the plates we want, we are ready to bring them to another noble machine for storage and imaging. And it's our cutie RockImager! Haha! So we just have to put our plates into the machine and it'll scan the barcode on the plate and bring it to the hotel room and then store it there. After that, when it's time, it'll image each individual drop under the microscope! This means that we don't have to suffer from sea sick! (Viewing the plateS under the microscope is super nauseating at times!)
After that, we will just pray and keep our fingers crossed that crystals will pop out! =D
Of course, we have to go through the images on our server and that can be real boring! But at least, we are sitting comfortably at our computer and not at the microscope. Hehs.
I bet you guys still don't understand what I had just presented to you. Just erm, wow at the beautiful robots then. Hahaha!!
