Nanosight Pro by Malvern Panalytical

"Great instrument for analyzing nanoparticles and their size distribution. "

"Following good practices, such as correct concentration optimization, it's easy to obtain reproducible and high quality results. It can be used as a routine characterization tool for extracellular vesicles."

"The software is buggy and the system crashes while determining multiple samples. Also the software is not cGMP compliant (software is not qualified) and this instrument could only be used for development purposes. I fitted an external degasser that did help with bubbles while introducing a sample through the syringe pump that reduced false readings. The data interpretation is pretty straightforward and understandable. It does demonstrate how a peptide aggregates over time which was very important for manufacturing. That in itself justified the purchase of this instrument even though all the software issues were very bothersome."

"The NS300 is easy to use when using the syringe pump directly and the upgraded system is an improvement over the NS500 that I had been using. The autosampler, however, requires a routine for setup that is somewhat cumbersome. The new camera and laser system I received gave very good bright images and performed as expected."

"NTA is a relatively simple technique, but a little expertise is needed to understand how to get good data and reproducible results. Another factor that can be limiting is the small working range, so additional time to get the proper dilution before analysis may be required. The instrument shines at looking at changes between samples and gives a "true" size distribution and particle count, while DLS and other methods use bulk analysis to generate the size distribution and concentration. Regardless of settings, I can measure 100 nm beads as 100 nm +/- 3 nm every time, but the particle count can vary somewhat if the proper care isn't taken in preparing the samples and getting a good video of the sample. The main skill in using this instrument is understanding how to get a good video of your sample, from which the system measures the particles. Another factor can be the material of the particle since some particle will refract light better than others. This can easily be adjusted with a setting, however if you have a high refractive indexed particle mixed with a low refractive indexed particle, you will have issues accurately measuring both. The final consideration I feel is important is that it is difficult to know if your data is correct or not since the method is very non specific. Is that your nanoparticle or some other salt crystal or protein aggregate? The purest water still has artifacts, so really knowing if the particle count and size distribution is correct does require good knowledge of the solution or the sample to know what you are really measuring. Now for the bad. An annoying design flaw is changing from a hard metal plate to plastic consumable top plates on their laser module. They say these newer plastic top plates have better flow characteristics, but it also added a consumable piece that is very fragile. They are sealed with an organic layer, which of course will dissolve away over time making these top plates consumable when the previous design used just a sealing O-ring. It is fairly obvious that this design was chosen to add consumable sales to the instrument so they can continue to get money from the instrument after purchase. Why else would you sell 5 packs of the channel if you did not expect them to wear out quickly? They also are not cheap. The design of the channel does have better flow, but it provides no benefits beyond it takes less volume and you can flush it out with only 1 mL of wash fluid. No benefit is gained in the data besides removing some possible carryover from the previous run if you didn't sufficiently flush the channel. Overall, the instrument has been effective in it's work and we use this instrument fairly heavily, but I did find the after care of the instrument to be incredibly poor. The technicians are knowledgeable, but you will probably need a $12,000 a year service contract to get them to respond. From my experience, every after care call that was done was viewed as a upsales call on their end, with no real care that the instrument is down or that it will cost another large sum of money to get it going again. Even with the service contract, most parts and additional repair costs still are not covered. Guess what piece isn't covered by the service contract? That is right, the consumable top plate that used to not be consumable. So in summary, this instrument provides more data than DLS a since each particle is counted and sized, but that also means every bit of artifact and background is counted and sized, leading to user experience needing to be higher than some instruments. I think the biggest downfall is the overall and sustained cost that seems to be designed into this instrument. The instrument is quite expensive upfront, but immediately seems to need service contracts and new channels for you to maintain the instrument."

"This instrument gives us the repeatable and accurate results that are needed for qualifications between AD and QC. It is user friendly, and the service team did a great job of training our team."

"The instrument is easy to use and easy to clean. It measures all types of nanoparticles efficiently."

"Not very easy to use or efficient. Takes too long to run a sample. Would be better off with a ZetaSizer instrument."

"The Nanosight NS300 is relatively easy to use. However, the equipment is somewhat fragile and caution must be taken when using. Consumables must be purchased and replaced more often than expected which adds more than you would originally think to annual cost. It is challenging to get reproducible results as even the slightest change in settings can change concentration count. This machine is great for determining basic patterns and trends for comparing concentration but I would not fully believe concentration readings as exact measurements."

"I am using this technique to measures the size of any type of nanoparticles. There are several more instrumentations which are able to analyze the size distribution. But, NanoSight can provide not only size distribution but also the number of particles i.e. concentration. Moreover, it can visualize the nanoparticles. Sometimes, the result doesn't match up with other techniques such as DLS. But, I believe this is the best NTA instrumentation."