Vandalia Research announces the launch of its latest service offering in custom DNA production - custom DNA molecular weight markers, or ladders - and reports on a poster at Bio 2007
DNA ladders are widely available as off-the-shelf commodities from a variety of vendors.
Vandalia Research, however, has stocked over 20 discrete fragments that customers may arrange in any fashion to create their own custom standard.
The company plans to offer several additional options, including labelled ladders and a variety of additional sizes from 25bp to 10kb.
Vandalia is now providing custom and stocked DNA ladders at via its website, where you can design your own marker with a minimum order of only 1mg.
Large volume orders are as low as $180/mg.
Vandalia presented the poster, Large-Scale PCR for Aptamer Identification, on 9 May 2007 at the Biotechnology Industry Organisation's 2007 meeting in Boston, MA.
The poster was authored by Elizabeth Murray and Michael Norton of Vandalia Research, and Menashi Cohenford of Marshall University.
Aptamers are short DNA or RNA molecules which can bind specifically to small and large molecule targets.
Aptamers can be identified by systematic evolution of ligands by exponential amplification (Selex).
The Selex method exposes a random oligonucleotide library to a specific target.
Nucleic acids that bind the target are amplified and subjected to additional rounds of selection.
Limitations to Selex include: library size (typically only 10^15 molecules can be synthesised in a library); mispriming of the random library with >5-10 PCR amplification cycles, resulting in truncated or extended products; dropout of potentially strong aptamers that are not competitive in amplification.
Recently, several researchers have developed non-Selex methods of aptamer identification using capillary gel electrophoresis.
However these methods are also limited by the quantity and randomness of the starting library material.
These barriers to aptamer identification are overcome using Vandalia Research Triathlon PCR amplification system.
The Triathlon's continuous method for heating and cooling the PCR reagents facilitates processing liter scale volumes of PCR product without pooling products from multiple small tubes.
This results in reduced labor, decreased turnaround time, and, most critically, a reduction in the number of opportunities for contamination.' The Triathlon can be used to produce large volumes of product amplified through only a limited number of cycles which can then be concentrated for Selex or non-Selex screening.
