Simple Synthesis of Functionalized Paramagnetic Beads for Nucleic Acid Purification and Manipulation.

The purification of nucleic acids is one of the most common procedures employed in modern molecular biology laboratories. Typically, commercial column-based protocols are utilized to isolate DNA or RNA from various sources. However, these methods not only require specialized equipment, but are also extremely expensive for high-throughput applications.

Bio-On-Magnetic-Beads (BOMB): Open platform for high-throughput nucleic acid extraction and manipulation.

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.

Identification and Characterization of Influenza Virus Entry Inhibitors through Dual Myxovirus High-Throughput Screening.

Unlabelled: Influenza A virus (IAV) infections cause major morbidity and mortality, generating an urgent need for novel antiviral therapeutics. We recently established a dual myxovirus high-throughput screening protocol that combines a fully replication-competent IAV-WSN strain and a respiratory syncytial virus reporter strain for the simultaneous identification of IAV-specific, paramyxovirus-specific, and broad-spectrum inhibitors. In the present study, this protocol was applied to a screening campaign to assess a diverse chemical library with over 142,000 entries.