GE Healthcare Introduces New Purifcation Kits For Improved DNA Analysis

GE Healthcare, a unit of General Electric Company (NYSE:GE), today launched several new additions to its illustra line of nucleic acid purification and amplification products within the company's Life Sciences business.


From its leadership in protein purification and separation technologies, GE Healthcare has developed a range of new DNA purification kits designed to deliver optimal yield and purity from a variety of sample sources including blood, cells, bacteria and animal tissue.


The illustra product has been designed to ensure that they provide high quality DNA output and simplify the DNA purification process, by reducing total protocol or hands on time and improving ease of use with color coded caps to match protocol steps and minimal pipetting changes.



"This launch is part of GE Healthcare's drive to simplify the DNA sample preparation workflow for research scientists," said Eric Roman, general manager of the Genomic Sciences business for GE Healthcare. "These new products join the illustra range as tools to help our customers separate target DNA (genomic DNA or plasmid DNA) - providing high quality, pure DNA to perform further research."


Based on addressing different research needs, these new illustra products include:


Plasmid DNA purification kits:


-- illustra plasmidPrep Midi Flow - designed for the purification of high yields of transfection-grade plasmid DNA. The procedure utilizes the superior capacity and selectivity of the Fast Flow plasmid purification medium to facilitate processing of larger culture volumes providing greater overall yields of plasmid DNA with low levels of endotoxin contamination.


-- illustra plasmidPrep Mini Spin - uses a simple plasmid DNA purification protocol involving a modified alkaline lysis procedure and a novel silica-based membrane to achieve highly efficient plasmid DNA purification.


Genomic DNA purification kits:


-- illustra blood genomicPrep Mini Spin - designed for the rapid extraction and purification of high molecular weight genomic DNA (gDNA) from whole blood, buffy coat, bone marrow, and nucleated red blood cells.


-- illustra blood genomicPrep Midi Flow - designed for high yield extraction and purification of genomic DNA (gDNA) from up to 8 ml of whole blood.


-- illustra tissue & cells genomicPrep Mini Spin - designed for the rapid extraction and purification of high molecular weight genomic DNA (gDNA) from a variety of animal tissues and mammalian cell cultures.
-- illustra tissue & cells genomicPrep Midi Flow - designed for high yield extraction and purification of genomic DNA (gDNA) from tissue ranging from 50 to 200 mg.


-- illustra bacteria genomicPrep Mini Spin - designed specifically for the rapid extraction and purification of high molecular weight genomic DNA (gDNA) from Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial strains.


DNA clean-up kits


-- illustra GFX PCR DNA and Gel Band Purification Kit - designed for rapid isolation and concentration of DNA fragments (50 bp to 10 kb) from PCR mixtures, agarose gel bands, enzyme-based DNA modifications, and restriction enzyme digestions.


"Our new illustra products will enable scientist to prepare their DNA sample up to 50% faster while maintaining high purity and DNA yield," said Roman. "GE is an industry leader in the development of separation media and application chemistry for the purification of Biomolecules - specifically proteins, peptides and nucleic acids."


About GE Healthcare


GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, performance improvement, drug discovery, and biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies is helping clinicians around the world re-imagine new ways to predict, diagnose, inform, treat and monitor disease, so patients can live their lives to the fullest.


GE Healthcare's broad range of products and services enable healthcare providers to better diagnose and treat cancer, heart disease, neurological diseases and other conditions earlier. Our vision for the future is to enable a new "early health" model of care focused on earlier diagnosis, pre-symptomatic disease detection and disease prevention. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a $17 billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE). Worldwide, GE Healthcare employs more than 46,000 people committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our website at gehealthcare.