In Phase II, we will develop a fully automatic, high-throughput, low-cost, multi-sample mRNA purification instrument and disposable sample cassettes. Unlike any other process currently available for mRNA purification, this instrument uses a derivative of the electrophoretic separation technology that was previously developed by our company for DNA purification in conjunction with a novel mRNA separation method and collection process. The separation technique is powerful in that can be performed with the combination of a multi-channel, disposable sample cassette and an inexpensive processing instrument. The availability of this instrument and its supplies will save countless hours of medical and biological research in labs that currently perform manual mRNA isolation. In Phase I, we tested this automated method and showed that it satisfactorily purified multiple samples of mRNA in less than 30 minutes. We showed that the purification method could be used on a wide range of starting cell numbers or tissue weights and still yield highly pure, biologically active mRNA. The instrument that we will research and develop in Phase II will purify mRNA directly from the cell or tissue lysate by a fully automated, two step procedure that can process up to 96 samples in parallel. The instrument is projected to cost less than $10,000 to the end user, with disposable costs of $1.5 per sample. These features will make the instrument at least two times faster and half the cost per sample of any automated product currently available. The instrument will be several times less expensive than competitor products, and thus affordable to smaller labs.
The methods and products developed in this work will be commericalized by MacConnell Research Corp. in the form of instruments and disposable cassettes that can be marketed to the 50,000 molecular biology laboratories worldwide. These products will greatly enhance the capability of researchers studying genetic disease, viral infection and cellular mechanisms at the molecular level.
