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Innovative Lab Products for the Life Sciences

The Bullet Blender™ and Bullet Blender™ 50

The easiest and coolest way to
 harvest native proteins from Yeast

No chemical lysis or harsh detergents required!
Your S. Cerevisiae and C. Albicans samples stay cool!

The Bullet Blender™Lyse E. coli and other cells. Homogenize or disrupt tissue. The Bullet Blender is quiet and user friendly.

> No Chemical Lysis or Harsh Detergents

> No Cross Contamination

> Samples stay cool

> Convenient

> Risk Free

Lyse E. coli and other cells. Homogenize or disrupt tissue. The Bullet Blender is quiet and user friendly.

Lyse many E. coli samples at the same time, in just minutes!

 

The Bullet Blender™ enables you to lyse up to 24 yeast cultures in microcentrifuge tubes or up to 9  yeast cultures in 50 mL tubes at a time.  Load the cultures in standard polypropylene tubes into the Bullet Blender™ (shown on left) or Bullet Blender™ Blue 50 (shown on right).  The "bullets" in the "blender" vigorously strike all the sample tubes simultaneously for a few minutes. 

“The Bullet Blender™ lets us reduce variability and user error and increase productivity.”

Dr. Scott Gridley, Director of Protein Sciences, Blue Sky Biotech, Inc., Worcester, MA

YEAST    “You can be done in 10 minutes instead of 4 hours." 

"We used to have to normalize the protein levels for lacz assays.  Now (with the Bullet Blender™) we have very high consistency, within +/- 5%."

Dr. Ashish Patil, University at Albany (SUNY)

Data provided by Blue Sky Biotech, Inc., Worcester, MA   www.blueskybiotech.com

The Bullet Blender™ microtube models hold up to 24 Saccharomyces / Candida cultures in microcentrifuge tubes at a time.  Process times of 3 to 5 minutes are typical for disrupting yeast. See our suggested protocols for lysing S. Cerevisiae, S. Pombe and C. Albicans as well as disrupting other cells and tissue.

The Bullet Blender™ 50 mL models

holds up to 9 yeast cultures in 50 ml tubes at a time.  The sample, lysis buffer, and beads should occupy no more than 15 ml of any tube.  Process times of 6 to 12 minutes are typical for disrupting yeast cultures. suggested protocols.

> No Chemical Lysis or Harsh Detergents Required

The Bullet Blender™ lyses Saccharomyces and other yeasts using mechanical action so no alkaline buffers are necessary

> No Cross Contamination

The yeast or other samples are disrupted (or mixed) non-invasively.  The sample tubes are kept closed during agitation, as the cell cultures are processed.  There are no probes to clean between samples.

> Samples Stay Cool

The instrument uses very little power due to the unique, patented design.  It uses a small DC motor to agitate the individual tubes, not ultrasonics.   Also, because the motor does not need to agitate any heavy platforms or plates, it is small and will last for years.

> Convenient to Use

Simply place your yeast or other cell cultures and some beads in standard high quality polypropylene tubes, and load the tubes into the Bullet Blender™.   Set the duration (typically a few minutes) and speed (vigorousness).  There are no probes to clean, it is quieter than a sonicator and does not heat up your samples more than a few degrees!

> Risk Free Purchase

The Bullet Blender™ comes with a 30 day money back guarantee and a 2 year warranty, with a 3 year warranty on the motor.  The simple, reliable design enables the Bullet Blenders™ to sell for a fraction  of the price of ultrasonic or other agitation based instruments, yet provides an easier, quicker technique.

 

Click here to go to the main Bullet Blender™ web page.

Protocol for Saccharomyces Homogenization in the Bullet Blender™

The protocol described in this document is for the use of the Bullet Blender™ for the homogenization of Saccharomyces cultures (cerevisiae, pombe, etc.). This protocol does not specify a particular buffer - you may choose which is most appropriate for your downstream application (nucleic acid isolation, protein extraction, etc.).

Materials Required:

yeast, aspirator, Bullet Blender™, homogenization buffer, pipettor, microcentrifuge tubes, 0.5mm zirconium oxide beads

Instructions:
  1. Pour overnight yeast culture into a microcentrifuge tube.
  2. Centrifuge culture to yield a cell pellet (1000g for two minutes).
  3. Completely aspirate the supernatant liquid. Place tube on ice.
  4. Resuspend 50 ODs (~1 x 109) cells in 400mL cold FA lysis buffer (50 mM HEPES, pH 7.5, 150 mM NaCl, 1 mM EDTA, 0.1% sodium deoxycholate, 0.1% SDS, 1 mM phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride)
  5. Transfer mixture to microcentrifuge tube containing 100mL of 0.5mm zirconium oxide beads. See NOTES below.
  6. Close the microcentrifuge tubes.
  7. Place tubes into the Bullet Blender™.
  8. Set controls for SPEED 8 and TIME to 5 minutes. Press Start.
  9. After the run, remove tubes from the instrument.
  10. Visually inspect samples. If homogenization is unsatisfactory, run for another two minutes at the SPEED 8.
  11. Proceed with your downstream application.
SAFETY NOTE!!!

When using a centrifuge to separate your homogenate from the debris and beads, make sure your tubes are balanced.

Notes

This protocol was optimized for S. cerevisiae. Different species of yeast and different applications will be amenable to different bead types. If you find that 0.5mm zirconium oxide beads are not working in your assay, try stainless steel and / or a smaller size. Cell density, cell size, and buffer composition will affect homogenization and variation of the bead size is an easy way to empirically determine what works best.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Dr. Joseph Geisberg, Department of biological Chemistry & Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, for feedback on the optimization of this protocol.


Protocol for C. Albicans Homogenization in the Bullet Blender™

The protocol described in this document is for the use of the Bullet Blender™ for the homogenization of cultures of the diploid fungus Candida albicans. This protocol was used for protein extraction and does specify wash solutions and buffers, however you may choose buffers and otherwise alter the protocol as appropriate for your downstream application (RNA / DNA extraction, etc.).

Materials Required:

C. albicans, aspirator, Bullet Blender™, homogenization buffer, pipettor, microcentrifuge tubes, 0.1mm glass beads (part GB01) or 0.5mm zirconium oxide beads (part GB05)

Instructions:
  1. Take 50ml of C. albicans culture at an OD600nm of 1.0.
  2. Harvest by vacuum filtration, resuspend in ice-cold 20% TCA, and incubate on ice for 30min.
  3. Centrifuge culture to yield a cell pellet.
  4. Wash the pellet 2x in alkaline-buffered acetone (three parts 3M Tris, pH 8.8, to seven parts acetone) or other wash of your choice.
  5. Air-dry the pellet. Resuspend in 8M urea (or lysis buffer of your choice).
  6. Add 100ml of acid-washed glass beads. (one scoop ≈ 50mL)
  7. Set controls for SPEED 8 and TIME to 5 minutes. Press Start.
  8. After the run, remove tubes from the instrument.
  9. Visually inspect samples. If homogenization is unsatisfactory, run for another two minutes at the SPEED 10.
  10. Proceed with your downstream application.
SAFETY NOTE!!!

When using a centrifuge to separate your homogenate from the debris and beads, make sure your tubes are balanced.

References:

Rauceo JM, Blankenship JR, Fanning S, Hamaker JJ, Deneault JS, Smith FJ, Nantel A, Mitchell AP. Regulation of the Candida albicans cell wall damage response by transcription factor Sko1 and PAS kinase Psk1. Mol Biol Cell. 2008 Jul;19(7):2741-51.


This protocol is an adaptation of the protocol in the referenced article.



Protocol for Saccharomyces Homogenization in the Bullet Blender™ 50

The protocol described in this document is for the use of the Bullet Blender™ for the homogenization of Saccharomyces cultures (cerevisiae, pombe, etc.). You may utilize this protocol as a starting point for other fungi, aslo. This protocol does not specify a particular buffer - you may choose which is most appropriate for your downstream application (nucleic acid isolation, protein extraction, etc.).

Materials Required:

yeast, cell culture hood, aspirator, Bullet Blender™ 50, beads (zirconium oxide OR glass – 0.15mm OR 0.5mm), homogenization buffer, 50mL centrifuge tubes, and pipetor.

Instructions:
  1. Pour overnight yeast culture into a 50mL centrifuge tube.
  2. Centrifuge culture to yield a cell pellet (2000g for one minute).
  3. Completely aspirate the supernatant liquid. Place tube on ice.
  4. You may use a larger cell pellet than yielded from 50mL culture by loading more culture, then repeating steps 1 through 3. NOTE: Increasing pellet may require a longer homogenization time to yield the same homogenization efficiency.
  5. Inspect the volume of the pellet. It should be 5mL or less in order to get efficient homogenization.
  6. Add and equal volume of zirconium oxide beads (0.15mm OR 0.5mm) OR glass beads (0.1mm OR 0.5mm) to the tube. See NOTES below.
  7. Add buffer (2 volumes of buffer for every volume of cells).
  8. Close centrifuge tubes.
  9. Place tubes into the Bullet Blender™.
  10. Set controls for SPEED 8 and TIME to 3 minutes. Press Start.
  11. After the run, remove tubes from the instrument.
  12. Visually inspect samples. If homogenization is unsatisfactory, run for another two minutes at the SPEED 8.
  13. Proceed with your downstream application.
SAFETY NOTE!!!

When using a centrifuge to separate your homogenate from the debris and beads, make sure your tubes are balanced.

Notes

Different species of yeast and different applications will be amenable to different bead types. Start with the 0.1mm glass beads or 0.15mm zirconium oxide beads. If you find that problematic for your assay, try the larger diameter beads (0.5mm). Cell density, cell size, and buffer composition will affect homogenization and variation of the bead size is an easy way to empirically determine what works best.