Bats and bat diseases are the subject of research interest in academia, environmental, pharmaceutical and government research institutes around the world. The species is largely misunderstood, and environmental research highlights that bats are essential animals in biodiverse ecosystems- they pollinate plants, disperse seeds, and control pests. Bat populations are in decline due to human forces such as habitat loss through deforestation and urbanization as well as human introduction of diseases like white nose syndrome. Not only are they an important indicator species of a healthy ecosystem, but they are often studied in medical research since they succumb to human neurodegenerative diseases, including Lou Gehrig’s disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS). ALS disease is induced in individual bats by environmental toxins. Bats have received significant media attention in recent decades since they have been identified as transmission species of viruses such as SARS, MERS, Ebola, and Rabies, among others. Scientists understand that these rare bat-borne zoonoses can be attributed to bats’ social nature - bat colonies are among the largest known mammalian social groups- combined with their unique metabolism and immunity [1-3].
The Omni Bead Ruptor™ Elite bead mill homogenizer is relied upon for the most basic of needs in the study of environmental, pathology, and pharmaceutical bat research in a wide variety of laboratory settings. This bead mill homogenizer system is used to efficiently homogenize bat tissue samples in sealed sample vessels where zero risk of sample carryover or cross-contamination is required for reliable sample preparation.
Homogenized bat tissue samples are typically subjected to further laboratory procedures involved in genetic and metabolomics analyses using techniques like qPCR, LC-MS/ MS, and HRMS.
Figure 1: Image of sample before and after homogenization