TubeTickler

The answer for rapid dispersal of packed centrifugal pellets in 2.0, 1.5, and 0.5 ml micro-centrifuge tubes.  Inspired by a methods paper in BioTechniques, the Tube-Tickler quickly suspends even firmly sedimented or sticky pellets in seconds.  Superior to an ordinary tube vortexer, the microtube is held against a specially designed rotating agitator head.  The unique slapping action of the agitator's head vigorously vibrates and swirls the tube contents.  Featuring one-hand operation, the Tube-Tickler is activated by light pressure on the top of the mixer.

In another application, the superior mixing energy imparted by the agitator head of the Tube-Tickler makes it significantly more efficient than a standard vortexer mixer when used to disrupt cells by beadbeating (bead-milling) method.  Simply add a volume of the appropriate sized and kind of beads to a similar volume of cells or tissue suspended in extraction media, and beadbeat for 2-5 minutes.

BioSpec manufactures a number of faster, more productive beadbeaters: The Mini-Beadbeater series for high throughput and the SoniBeast for small, milligram-sized samples.