Simple And Versatile Automated Machine

December 20, 2016

Harvard Medical School
Neurobiology
Postdoctoral Fellow

Overall

Performance

Ease-of-Optimization

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Company:

Qiagen

Product Name:

QIAcube

Catalog Number:

9001292

QIAcube is a robotic automated machine for automated purification of DNA, RNA and proteins using the conventional Qiagen spin-column kits. Once loaded the machine does the entire purification automatically for maximum 12 samples. Preparation and loading time varies between 10 minutes and 20 minutes. Run time depends on the protocol, somewhere between 20 min and 60 min. The process is very reliable and the machine detects any possible errors before the run. The major drawbacks are long loading time and limited capacity.

Experimental Design and Results Summary

Application

DNA, RNA, protein isolation, purification

Starting Material

Cells, bacteria, PCR product etc.

Protocol Overview

Sample protocol for Qiaprep Spin Miniprep Kit (other Qiagen kits come with similar protocols).1. Load the machine with buffers, pipette tips and spin columns.2. Centrifuge your bacterial sample separately (6,800g for 3 min) in 2 mL tubes and aspirate the supernatant.3. Place your bacterial pellet into the machine (onto the sample holding area, which is a shaker).4. Program the machine to perform the Miniprep protocol.5. Wait 2-3 minutes until the machine checks loading.6. The protocol takes about 60 minutes.

Tips

Make sure you don't leave the machine until it actually started. There might be an error (too much, too little buffer etc.). Make sure you load the right pipette tips, this is not checked by the machine in the beginning and may result in termination of the protocol.

Results Summary

The results are reliable, essentially the same as obtained by any Qiagen kits.

Features Summary

Automatic, programmable (decide on elution volume for instance), versatile

DOI or PMID #

N/A

Additional Notes

N/A

Image Gallery

Summary

The Good

Nicely automated, detects most errors.

The Bad

Low capacity. Pipette tips are not checked and if incorrect tips are placed into the machine, it will stop in the middle of the run. Not all tips are used from one rack, pipette tips has to be loaded one-by-one sometimes.

The Bottom Line

Convenient, versatile, smart machine, however capacity is limited and loading and preparation is long.

Product Name: QIAcubeSupplier Page

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