BEVERLY, Mass. — February 12, 2014 — Sage Science, a developer of products for improving sample preparation processes in life science applications, today announced the release of its new SageELF technology for DNA and protein fractionation. This sample prep instrument will be especially useful for preserving precious samples and has applications in next-generation sequencing as well as bottom-up or top-down proteomics experiments.
The SageELF generates 12 contiguous fractions from whole DNA or protein samples. For DNA or cDNA sequencing, that allows scientists to generate libraries with multiple insert sizes from the same sample, which has applications in genome sequencing, structural variant detection, and identification of rare splice variants. For protein studies, the ability to take many slices from a whole sample is useful for reducing sample complexity, enriching for rare proteins, and ensuring recovery of all proteins in the sample.
“As the leading provider of automated products for targeted DNA size selection, we are pleased to offer this new tool for whole-sample fractionation. We believe that users will find the SageELF to be more reproducible and precise than manual gels or columns,” said Todd Barbera, the COO of Sage Science. “The ability to maximize value from every single sample is in line with our commitment to the sample prep market, where we target labor-intensive steps that can be significantly improved with accurate, automated solutions.”
The SageELF, short for Electrophoretic Lateral Fractionator, automatically electrophoreses samples and elutes whole DNA or proteins from the entire gel lane into 12 elution modules. Users simply load their sample, start the run, and pipette out the fractions later. Unlike in-gel digestion, in which some DNA fragments or peptides never leave the gel, the whole protein or DNA sample is electrophoresed into the elution modules.
Sage Science also manufactures the Pippin line of automated tools for targeted DNA size selection. Independent studies of size-selection methods for next-generation sequencing sample prep have repeatedly found that the Pippin platform offers unparalleled reproducibility, accuracy, and sample recovery. Precise size selection is critical for optimizing sequencing efficiency, improving genome assemblies, and reducing project costs.
To learn more about the SageELF, visit www.sagescience.com/sage-elf