Kits Take the Trickiness Out of RNA Isolation, Purification
Because RNA lies at the heart of gene expression, extracting it from cells is a common procedure in many cell biology, molecular biology, and biochemistry laboratories. "Obtaining high-quality, intact RNA is the first and often the most critical step in performing many fundamental molecular biology experiments, including northern blot analysis, nuclease protection assays, in vitro translation, reverse transcription PCR, and cDNA library construction,” says G. Russell Kimball, product manager at Ambion Inc. in Austin, Texas, a firm that calls itself "The RNA Company."
RNA isolation has a reputation for being tricky. "When I train new graduate students or postdocs, the greatest challenge is overcoming their fear," notes Hugh Robertson, a professor of biochemistry at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center who studies RNA viruses. "They are taught in college courses that RNA is very difficult to work with, that it breaks down ...
