PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Phil Oberacker
AU  - Peter Stepper
AU  - Donna M Bond
AU  - Sven Höhn
AU  - Jule Focken
AU  - Vivien Meyer
AU  - Luca Schelle
AU  - Victoria J Sugrue
AU  - Gert-Jan Jeunen
AU  - Tim Moser
AU  - Steven R Hore
AU  - Ferdinand von Meyenn
AU  - Katharina Hipp
AU  - Timothy A Hore
AU  - Tomasz P Jurkowski
TI  - Bio-On-Magnetic-Beads (BOMB): Open platform for high-throughput nucleic acid extraction and manipulation
AID  - 10.1101/414516
DP  - 2018 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 414516
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/09/12/414516.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/09/12/414516.full
AB  - Current molecular biology laboratories rely heavily on the purification and manipulation of nucleic acids. Yet, commonly used centrifuge-and column-based protocols require specialised equipment, often use toxic reagents and are not economically scalable or practical to use in a high-throughput manner. Although it has been known for some time that magnetic beads can provide an elegant answer to these issues, the development of open-source protocols based on beads has been limited. In this article, we provide step-by-step instructions for an easy synthesis of functionalised magnetic beads, and detailed protocols for their use in the high-throughput purification of plasmids, genomic DNA and total RNA from different sources, as well as environmental TNA and PCR amplicons. We also provide a bead-based protocol for bisulfite conversion, and size selection of DNA and RNA fragments. Comparison to other methods highlights the capability, versatility and extreme cost-effectiveness of using magnetic beads. These open source protocols and the associated webpage (https://bomb.bio) can serve as a platform for further protocol customisation and community engagement.AbbreviationsBOMBBio-On-Magnetic-BeadsSPRISolid-Phase Reversible ImmobilisationMNPmagnetic nanoparticle