Application Note
High yield & quality from 1 mL whole blood in less than 2 hours automated
Introduction
Materials and Methods
DNA was extracted from 2 sets of identical whole blood samples on the same day. One set was processed using Company Q’s automated system with Company Q’s chemistry, and one set was processed using the Hamilton Microlab® STAR™ with Omega Bio-tek’s Mag-BIND® Blood & Tissue DNA HDQ 96 Kit. For the Hamilton/Omega procedure, whole blood tubes were inserted into sample carriers where the instrument scanned barcodes from the individual blood tubes. 1,000 μL of each blood sample was then aspirated and dispensed into 250 μL aliquots in the same well position of 4 different 96-well deep well plates. Cell lysis was achieved by heating and shaking the samples using Hamilton’s heater-shakers. Magnetic beads and binding solution were then added to capture the DNA from the sample lysates. Four quick wash steps were performed and then DNA was eluted in 10 mM Tris-Cl (pH 8.5). No drying step was required to remove ethanol, allowing for faster processing and more reliable results. DNA purity was analyzed with the Thermo Scientific NanoDrop® 2000c and quantity was assessed with Promega’s QuantiFluor® dsDNA system.
Results
Automation of genomic DNA purification from whole blood on the Hamilton Microlab STAR with Omega Bio-tek’s chemistry allows for recovery of large amounts of high-quality genomic DNA. The Hamilton/Omega procedure decreased overall processing time by simultaneously extracting from 96 samples compared to batches of 24 processed by Company Q. The Hamilton/Omega instrument scripting has been optimized to allow for maximum throughput, DNA quality and yield. Minimal user intervention is required as the system goes from whole blood to purified DNA without any user pause steps after initial inputs are received.
