I have been following the recent debate on peptide synthesizers with
interest. I am a long time user of the 9050, and I agree with the fact
that it is an easy to use, robust and easy to fix machine, and it
synthesized all our peptides successfully. Unfortunately, the spare
parts problem is becoming difficult to deal with. We now have some money
to buy a new machine and were thinking of the Perseptive Pioneer
machine. However, some of the comments I read on this machine, and
particularly the MPS option are a bit worrying. Could users of this
machine tell me what the principal problems are? Are there other viable
alternatives in the price range? I should mention that we are not a
service facility, so that the machine would not be too intensely used.
Our peptides are in the 10-40 residue range., but we also suynthesize
short peptides in solution, with unusual chemistries that we would like
to do in solid phase. One final consideration; we have severe space
problems. Could someone rate synthesizers from the "steric" point of
view (I know this sounds silly, but finding a seperate room for the
machine would be a problem for us, and in the lab it probably needs to
be run in some kind of vented hood).
Thanks for any advice, Alex
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Dr. Alessandro Tossi
Dept. of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Macromolecular Chemistry
University of Trieste
Phone -- 39 40 6763673; Fax -- 39 40 6763691
email: tossi@bbcm.univ.trieste.it
tossi@univ.trieste.it
http://www.bbcm.univ.trieste.it/~tossi
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