Interesting RNA Isolation Kit

March 30, 2018

UCSF
Medicine
Research Associate

Overall

Quality of Results

Ease-of-Optimization

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Company:

Thermo Fisher Scientific

Product Name:

MagMAX™-96 Total RNA Isolation Kit

Catalog Number:

AM1830

We purchased this kit for isolating RNA from cultured lung slices (both mouse and human) because we were struggling with getting a good yield from our usual column purification kit. The slices are inflated with agarose prior to cutting, so that was getting stuck in the columns and ruining the RNA. This kit gets around that issue by using magnetic RNA binding beads-we had hoped that this would get around the column issue and it looks like it has.

Experimental Design and Results Summary

Application

qPCR

Starting Material

Precision Cut Human and Mouse Lung Slices

Protocol Overview

We changed the protocol up a bit. Mainly, instead of using the included plate, we used 1.5 ml eppendorf tubes and used an oversized vortexer/orbital shaker for resuspension. It gave us more flexibility and a better visual on the samples since we were having some trouble with the beads clumping during wash steps. As the photo shows, we fill up a rack with some clay and use strong bar magnets to separate the beads from solution.

Tips

Vortex really well, use 1.5ml tubes instead of the plate,

Results Summary

I wouldn't say this is a great kit to use for every day RNA isolation, but it works when you have a contaminating reagent or can't use a column purification kit. It gave us RNA, but the 260/230 ratio and total yield leave a bit to be desired.

DOI or PMID #

N/A

Additional Notes

N/A

Image Gallery

Summary

The Good

Works for unique purposes and gets around column purification

The Bad

Not great yield, but this could be due to our samples.

The Bottom Line

Solid work around for issues with column purification, but definitely not as effective or easy to use as our usual column kit.

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