Extraction and Amplification of Genomic DNA from Human Blood on Nanoporous Aluminum Oxide Membranes

Abstract

Purification of genomic DNA from biological samples is a requisite initial step in the performance of many molecu-lar diagnostic assays. Traditional purification methods based on phenol–chloroform extraction and ethanol pre-cipitation have been largely supplanted by adsorption and elution procedures based on silica and coated mag-netic bead matrices. In most applications, the purified genomic DNA must be physically separated from the adsorption matrix before downstream processes such as amplification by PCR. Separation is done to reduce inhib-itory effects of adsorption matrices on amplification pro-cesses, which may result from matrix interactions with enzymes and other reaction components (1). The require-ment for separation necessitates the addition of a transfer step performed by either manual or robotic means.