MWG Biotech of Ebersberg, Germany, has launched RoboSmart, a new sample preparation lab robot that performs completely auto-mated plasmid or PCR product purification, including setting up, processing, and purifying the sequencing reaction.
According to the company, the system takes about a half hour to load, and can process over 768 samples in 15 hours without requiring any user intervention.
"The new RoboSmart represents a long awaited application solution, especially for all 96 capillary sequencer users," said MichaelWeichselgartner, CEO of MWG-Biotech. "It is the result of our strategy to develop complete solutions for our customers, so that valuable working time is available for important research work."
The company said it expects to sell about 20 RoboSmart units in 2001.
Researchers at the UK''s University of Nottingham and Museum of Natural History have successfully demonstrated that Tepnel Life Sciences'' Nucleon PhytoPure kit can be used to extract DNA from snails and slugs, the company said.
This procedure was previously problematic due to polysaccharides in snail and slug mucous that inhibited DNA polymerases. But the Nucleon PhytoPure Kit, which Tepnel, of Manchester, UK originally designed for plant DNA extraction, can apparently extract DNA from snails and slugs effectively ó and without killing them.