Preparing Your Clinical Laboratory for High Throughput Buccal Swab DNA Purification

Successfully performing high throughput DNA purification in a clinical laboratory requires a robust automated method to handle the wide ranges in DNA quality and quantity found with patient buccal swabs, and to avoid the difficulties of sample recollection. Adopting a single, scalable method ensures stable workflow with consistent patient report turnaround time, even during spikes in incoming sample numbers, and greatly simplifies the CLIA regulated validation process. A single Biomek FX workstation configured with Beckman Coulter’s DNAdvance magnetic bead method enables the purification of approximately 2000 samples during an 8 hour shift with a combined 99.8% success rate per patient, while protecting laboratory personnel from infectious agent exposure and repetitive stress injuries. Special considerations and solutions for clinical environments will be presented that also apply to high throughput research laboratories. 

Learning Objectives:

• Learn how a single Biomek FX workstation configured with Beckman Coulter’s DNAdvance magnetic bead method enables the purification of approximately 2000 samples during an 8 hour shift with a combined 99.8% success rate per patient, while protecting laboratory personnel from infectious agent exposure and repetitive stress injuries
• Learn about special considerations and solutions for clinical environments that also apply to high throughput research laboratories