Gentra Systems launches pharmacogenomics kit
Purification Kit, which responds to the growing need for
high-quality DNA for sensitive downstream applications. The kit
uses chemistry and column design to purify DNA with minimal RNA and
protein contamination.
The advent of personalised medicine has grown in popularity, with its emphasis on individual human genotype mapping. However, this means the need to reduce sample failure in downstream applications has become doubly important.
VersaGene is scalable and allows purification of double-stranded DNA from as few as 1,000 and up to 25 million cells from the same kit, in as little as 30 minutes.
Eluted samples can be used immediately in downstream applications, including emerging and novel applications such as SNP microarrays and comparative genomic hybridisation (CGH) microarrays.
"VersaGene DNA for Cells technology is suited for researchers working in the rapidly-growing field of personalised medicine, where highly pure DNA samples are a requisite," said Stephen Rundlett, VersaGene product manager for Gentra.
The kits employ glass fibre mini-columns and proprietary non-chaotropic reagents to produce improved yields of concentrated, double-stranded DNA that is suitable for sensitive downstream analyses that include, PCR amplification, Southern blotting, restriction enzyme digestion, DNA microarrays, sequencing and genotyping.
The versaGene DNA Cell Purification Kit has also proven useful for researchers performing CGH assays to aid in early diagnosis of cancer and genetic diseases.
Personalised medicine or Pharmacogenomics, as it is more commonly known, is the study of tailoring drug treatments to a person's genetic profile.
It is said to be the future of drug research and development, paving the way for individualised treatment on an unprecedented scale.
It is based on the theory that drugs will act in a different way according to the patient's genetic make-up. Humans are genetically 99.9 per cent identical.
However, it is the 0.1 per cent difference that can hold clues to illnesses such as asthma, dementia and heart disease.
Versagene DNA kits comes with all of the reagents and mini-columns needed to perform purifications and have been designed to be used on the laboratory bench at room temperature, without a fume hood.
Protocols do not require a cooled centrifuge, heat block, water bath or special waste disposal.
