CombiPuck System

Combine the ease of cryocooling into vials with the benefits of Uni-pucks

• Store and ship samples in cryovials with Uni-puck lids.

• Compatible at facilities that require Uni-pucks, such as use at DLS, ESRF & APS

The Research Behind The CombiPuck

Original concepts for a combipuck design were suggested as part of the "universal puck project" spearheaded by the SSRL-SMB (Structural Molecular Biology) group in collaboration with the developers at the ALS, and APS-SBC CAT, CHESS, and NSLS, among others - Learn More.

The CombiPuck provides a way of shipping and storing crystals mounted on SPINE standard pins in magnetic cryovials. The CombiPuck was conceived and developed at Diamond Light Source (DLS) by Juan Sanchez-Weatherby. The puck was further modified and developed to make it suitable for transporting crystals to synchrotrons using the CombiPuck Kit by Dr. Minmin Yu, (while an X-Ray Facility Scientist at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (MRC LMB), Cambridge, UK), supported by Dr. Andrew Leslie, with assistance from the LMB mechanical workshop and in collaboration with DLS. With help from MRC Technology (MRCT), the CombiPuck has been granted international design protections and the CombiPuck Kit is commercialized via Mitegen.

The CombiPuck accommodates a maximum of 16 SPINE standard metal bottom vials. Each vial stores a crystal mounting pin and loop. The CombiPuck shares the same base as the UniPuck so it can be used at synchrotron beamlines that accept the UniPuck format bases. The use of the CombiPuck complements existing conventional crystallography storage by providing easy sample transfer to and from canes, the SPINE puck, UniPuck or other pucks. The CombiPuck Kit avoids extra transfer steps of bare crystal pins from stored vials to no vial types of pucks.

The CombiPuck Kit includes the puck and a set of related tools created to facilitate the transferring, shipping and retrieving of samples. The compatible tools provide convenient opening and closing of the puck base from or to the puck body with a base ejecting feature and also include a storage canister for long-term sample storage.