High Throughput Nucleic Acid Purification and Analysis

Nucleic acid extraction and purification represents a significant bottleneck in DNA analysis. Magnetic bead-based extraction methods can rapidly extract DNA from sample solutions; however, these methods suffer from particle aggregation and sedimentation resulting in diminished extraction efficiencies. Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) is a promising biomarker for the diagnosis of cancer and monitoring of treatment. However, several challenges prevent ctDNA from being widely used for routine clinical analyses. These include: 1) isolation of ctDNA from plasma or blood and 2) detection and quantification of low levels of ctDNA in the presence of excess circulating DNA. This talk will focus on the design and synthesis of magnetic ionic liquids (MILs), and magnetic deep eutectic solvents (DESs) and the use of these materials in a number of applications related to the analysis of nucleic acids. The talk will also discuss methodologies recently developed for extracting DNA from plant tissues.