Equipment
Autopure LS
Autopure LS is an automated purification instrument designed to provide automated nucleic acid purification from large volumes for high-throughput clinical and research applications. It processes 96 samples in eight hours while providing complete sample tracking. Starting with 10 ml of blood, the instrument yields up to 500 µg or more of high molecular weight DNA.
PSQ HS 96 Pyrosequencer
PSQ HS 96 Pyrosequencer is used for the detection of mutations and SNPs in a variety of clinical applications and the analysis of DNA methylation.
PSQ HS 96 is a highly sensitive and quantitative genetic analysis system based on pyrosequencing technology. Pyrosequencing stands out among rapid genetic analysis methods in that it always generates true sequence information. This gives per-sample quality control in every run, from which the software makes an automatic quality assessment. Results are therefore unambiguous and eliminate the need to repeat assays or run separate controls. Each result, called a Pyrogram™, is a quantitative representation of the sample's nucleotide base sequence. Every Pyrogram shows determined polymorphic position and is ideal for quantitative analysis.
Qiagen 4-15 Centrifuge with Rotors #9100 and #11140
This centrifuge is used specifically for extraction of DNA using the QIAGEN DNA extraction kits. This allows for extraction of high-quality DNA from a wide range of volumes, as low as 200 ml.
ABI PRISM 6100 Nucleic Acid PrepStation
This instrument can be used for extraction of DNA and RNA from solid tissues and blood. We were a beta test site for this instrument and found that the quality of the nucleic acids we obtain with this instrument is of superior quality. We are in the process of purchasing this instrument.
Molecular Devices SpectraMax PLUS384
The institution recently purchased a Molecular Devices SpectraMax PLUS384 high-throughput microplate spectrophotometer for the NAF. This instrument can measure absorbances for a single cuvette as well as in the 96-well and 384-well format. We are currently using it for quantitating the yields of nucleic acids.
NAPCO Refrigerated Centrifuge
A NAPCO 2019R refrigerated centrifuge was also purchased for the NAF by MD Anderson for various centrifugation steps in manual nucleic acid extraction procedures and manipulation of the nucleic acids following extraction.
PTC-200 DNA Engine, MJ Research, Inc.
This is a thermal cycler used for generating PCR products. It has interchangeable 48-well and 96-well blocks for carrying out PCRs.