Universal process for isolating and purifying nucleic acids from extremely small amounts of highly contaminated various starting materials

US6037465A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• Invitek GmbH · DE

Inventors

• Timo Hillebrand · Spremberg - Grodk, DE
• Peter Bendzko · Berlin, DE
• Lars-Erik Peters · Lafayette, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Dec 16, 1996
• Grant date: Mar 14, 2000
• Expiry date: Dec 16, 2016

Classification

• Technology area (CPC C): Chemistry; Metallurgy
• CPC primary: C12N15/1006
• WIPO field: Biotechnology
• WIPO sector: Chemistry

Abstract

A universal process is disclosed for extracting and purifying nucleic acids from extremely small amounts of highly contaminated various biological and other starting materials. The invention has applications in forensic medicine, medical diagnosis, molecular biology, biochemistry, genetic technology and all related fields. The process is characterized in that nucleic acid-containing materials are lysed, the lysate is incubated with a non-porous, non-structured, highly disperse, homogeneous and chemically pure SiO.sub.2 substrate, the substrate is isolated with the bound nucleic acids and washed with a buffer solution, then the nucleic acids are dissolved from the substrate by a buffer with a lower salt concentration. Lysis of the material and nucleic acid immobilization are preferably carried out in a reaction vessel. The substrate particles have a size of 7-40 nm, preferably 40 nm, and a specific surface from 50-300 g/m.sup.2, preferably 50 g/m.sup.2.