ZyGEM Launches prepGEM™ and forensicGEM™ DNA Extraction Products for Forensic, Research and Animal Health Applications
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ZyGEM Corp. Ltd., a leading provider of advanced enzymatic tools for life sciences applications, today announced the launch of its newly extended prepGEM™ and forensicGEM™ range of reagent kits for DNA extraction. These innovative products are now available in a wide variety of formats tailored for specific applications and types of samples. Based on ZyGEM’s proprietary enzyme technology, these reagent kits represent a significant advance in DNA sample preparation for human and animal genotyping and other nucleic acid-based testing and analysis. ZyGEM also announced the launch today of its enhanced website at www.ZyGEM.com.
The prepGEM™ and forensicGEM™ families of kits leverage the unique properties of ZyGEM’s thermophilic enzymes to conduct DNA extraction in a single closed tube. As a result of this unique approach, prepGEM™ and forensicGEM™ kits are easy and fast to use. They simplify laboratory workflow, minimizing the opportunity for sample contamination and error while reducing costs. They are flexible, making it possible to automate sample processing using almost any off-the-shelf robotic system. The kits are non-toxic and provide robust, reliable and consistent downstream analytic results. Using these kits, researchers can prepare samples up to three times faster than with existing products—the entire process from sample extraction up through DNA amplification can be accomplished in just 20 minutes with no hands-on attention required.
prepGEM™ and forensicGEM™ kits provide benefits that are particularly valuable for their respective customers. For prepGEM™ customers, the ability to obtain DNA that is usable without further purification for most PCR-based downstream applications is an important advantage, as is the fact that the kits can be used with almost any liquid handling system and by workers of varying skill levels. prepGEM™’s rapid results and low cost are important to customers in both industry and research settings.
“The identification of insects on our export produce is critical as many of our overseas markets will not accept produce if it is contaminated,” said Dr. Richard Newcomb, Science Leader, Molecular Olfaction at Hort Research, The Horticulture and Food Research Institute of New Zealand. “The rapid identification of these insect species is essential so that produce can be sent without delay. Our researchers have been using ZyGEM’s prepGEM™ to rapidly extract DNA for PCR-based diagnostics of insect species, especially scale insects that are sometimes found on kiwifruit. In a one-step process, insect scale is loaded into multi-well plates and the ZyGEM enzyme added. After incubation and heat treatment, an aliquot from each well is transferred for PCR identification. This simple method saves time and money and contributes to maintaining important markets for New Zealand ’s horticultural exports.”
forensicGEM™ kits provide a proven and efficient way to prepare DNA for forensic analysis, even from challenging samples. Customers particularly appreciate the fact that the closed-tube system ensures sample integrity by minimizing the risk of contamination. The demanding requirements of forensic DNA analysis are addressed by the expanded range of forensicGEM™ kits that are specifically designed to work with a variety of difficult samples without the need for further purification. The ease of automation and lower costs of forensicGEM™ kits are important features for forensic customers who manage high volume analyses for database applications. forensicGEM™ kits have been extensively tested and validated and are proven in routine use in actual forensic labs.
“The unique properties of our proprietary EA1 protease, the key ingredient in the forensicGEM™ and prepGEM™ family of kits, make possible this cost effective and flexible solution for researchers performing a wide variety of experiments, including human genotyping, animal testing and basic research,” said David Saul, Ph.D., Senior Scientist at ZyGEM. “This enzyme has a pH profile, temperature profile, robustness and protein substrate specificity that make it ideal for DNA extraction in a closed tube. The result is a system where a simple temperature shift in the closed tube can modulate enzyme activity, providing excellent quality DNA that is ready for analysis by most PCR-based methods, while avoiding the contamination and low yields that can be encountered with other approaches.
prepGEM™ kits have been formulated for high-throughput DNA extraction from animal tissue samples for life science research, animal testing and traceability, selective breeding and other animal health and agricultural applications. prepGEM™ kits enable high-throughput DNA extraction of 384 samples in less than 30 minutes. They contain reagents that have been optimized for downstream PCR-based applications including quantitative PCR, genotyping using STRs or SNPs, RFLP analyses etc. They are proven on a range of animal samples including blood, micro-biopsies (ear tags), meat, rat tails, fish, fish tails and insects.
forensicGEM™ kits have been formulated for high-throughput DNA extraction from crime scene and other sample sources, providing PCR-ready, forensic grade DNA for 96 samples in just 20 minutes. The one-tube forensicGEM™ process is simple to use and easy to automate with current robotic platforms, making it ideal for database testing as well as case work samples. All reagents are rigorously quality controlled to test for efficacy and for the absence of human DNA. forensicGEM™ kits are validated for forensic analysis.
