Overview

Nucleic acid cleanup is the process of purifying specific nucleic acids from an enzymatic reaction, or for creating a resuspension – a mixture suspending fine particles in fluid. Nucleic acid cleanup is a key step in many molecular biology workflows, including NGS library preparation. Using the workflow outlined here, scientists can increase their throughput, reduce errors, and save hours of repetitive work every week by automating their cleanups.

At Opentrons, we recommend using Omega Bio-tek Total-Pure NGS magnetic beads for these protocols. These beads can purify and select particular size fragments for subsequent workflow steps. More importantly, we have shown in our lab that our liquid handling robot (the OT-2) produces high yield and high quality products when running cleanups with the Omega Bio-Tek Total-Pure NGS beads (click the link to read our application note). By using these beads and activating the OT-2’s Magnetic Module, the selected nucleic acids attach to the Magnetic bead and are pelleted on the side of the well. After resuspension and separation, the supernatant containing the purified product can be collected from the OT-2 or used for your next experiment.

In addition, we have a protocol that anyone can customize, download, and run on their own OT-2. We also have a tool to build a protocol that will work for any brand of magnetic beads, giving scientists the ability to vary all key parameters in their experiment and optimize purification using our Magnetic Module as a starting point.