Gone Fishin' : Labsystems' KingFisher(TM) Automates Purification of Single-Stranded DNA

In the rush to sequence every gene in existence researchers need to increase their capacity and throughput. However, the ability to sequence samples quickly is fruitless if the quality of the DNA is poor. Sequencing of double-stranded DNA can complicate the process because it may produce a less clean read-through of the gene fragment of interest than a single-stranded starting template would. On the other hand, manual preparation of single-stranded DNA can be time consuming and result in decreased recovery of the final single-stranded product due to the extraction, washing, and centrifugation steps. This past February, Labsystems introduced the KingFisher system with a revolutionary new way to produce purified and processed single-stranded DNA.

Labsystems' KingFisher microtiter plate

The KingFisher takes over after PCR amplification using a biotinylated probe that results in double-stranded DNA with one biotinylated strand. The recommended size of the starting material is <800 bp since longer fragments...