SageHLS: Automated uHMW DNA Preparation

Advances in optical mapping, linked reads, PacBio and nanopore sequencing are enabling generatinghighly contiguous large genome sequences routinely and inexpensively.  However, this in turn is creating intense demand for efficiently and reliably preparing ultra-high molecular weight (uHMW) DNA.  By this term,  I mean DNA approaching or exceeding a megabase in size.  Methods for preparing HMW and uHMW DNA tend to be very old-school, reaching back at least back to the 1970s, 80s and 90s for approaches used in the early days.  Phenol-chloroform preps with the DNA spooled out onto a glass hook or rod are one popular approach; another is toembed cells in agarose blocks, extract the DNA within the block and then degrade the agarose to retrieve the DNA.  Nuclei preps are yet another approach. Any liquid handling must be performed gently and with wide bore pipettes.  These techniques tend to be tedious and slow affairs, requiring many manual steps.  As an alternative, Sage Sciences has launched an instrument which automates a process with no haza rdous chemicals, theSageHLS.Read more »
Source: Omics! Omics! - Category: Bioinformatics Authors: Source Type: blogs