The modern genomic laboratory faces many challenges associated with nucleic acid purification. In part, these are related to hazardous chemicals in the reagents that have over time become the standard for this application. These standardized methods used for DNA purification are currently based on the use of flammable and/or hazardous substances, such as isopropanol, ethanol and chaotropic salts.
While these alcohol-based DNA purification methods are widely established, they can come with significant risks for laboratories during day-to-day operations. Alcohol-based buffers create both health & safety and environmental risks by exposing employees to highly flammable and hazardous chemicals. The need for these flammable chemicals also raises logistical challenges. Shipping dangerous goods can be costly, whilst storage and disposal of these chemicals require expert training and is often expensive. Disposal of these reagents in an ecological friendly manner remains problematic, due to the presence of these hazardous chemicals.
The health & safety risks of the these chemicals are a growing concern for laboratory staff, management and governments. The legislation in both the European Union and USA (ATEX (2014/34/EU) and NFPA 70 NEC respectively), require companies and users utilizing flammable chemicals to handle them safely and look into using safer alternatives, if available.
Even though the use of these flammable liquids has become accepted as a standard, legislation and a sense of responsibility for people and the environment is refocusing genomic labs on the use of alternative reagents. It has become more important than ever for laboratories to innovate and change as much as possible, to reach their Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) goals.
Removal of alcohols and chaotropic substances from (high-throughput) DNA purification has now become a viable option. Dutch company MolGen has launched an alternative DNA purification technology, which is both safe and sustainable. Their range of PurePrep 0.0 kits, based on magnetic bead technology, do not contain any alcoholic components or chaotropic salts and can be adopted for the use in automated systems already running in the lab. The PurePrep Plant 0.0 has been developed and tested extensively on a large variety of seed and leaf samples. This safer alternative for DNA extraction, can be implemented everywhere from small, manual processes to fully automated robotic systems and especially in ultra-high throughput DNA purification systems, such as the MolGen DNA Factory.
In addition to the benefits of being alcohol and chaotropic salt-free, the PurePrep 0.0 kits result in faster purification times for both plant and animal samples, whilst also reducing plastic waste compared to some alcohol-based methods.
MolGen will be at CropIB 2025 to present the PurePrep 0.0 technology and demonstrate how MolGen can help customers to purify DNA safer, faster and with less impact on the environment.