Pleasanton, Calif. – June 8, 2021 – Purigen Biosystems, Inc., a leading provider of next-generation technologies for extracting and purifying nucleic acids from biological samples, today announced the launch of an early access program for its Ionic® Pure Viral RNA Kit. The new kit enables users of the Ionic Purification System to extract high yields of high-quality RNA from swabs, biofluids, and transport media with a simple, automated workflow.

Clinical laboratories are increasingly challenged to rapidly develop new assays for aggressive, drug-resistant viruses. Such assays require sufficient yields of high-quality RNA to reach target thresholds for detection. Because of this, development timelines can stretch significantly when purification processes rely on inefficient technologies. Purigen’s new Ionic Pure Viral RNA Kit was designed to overcome these challenges and was developed in direct collaboration with clinical and research laboratories. The same viral RNA extraction and purification protocol was used by a finalist team of scientists from Purigen and the Stanford Microfluidics Laboratory for the recent $6 million XPRIZE Rapid Covid Testing competition. The team combined Purigen’s Ionic® Purification System with a CRISPR-based detection method developed by scientists at Stanford University to identify amplicons associated with the SARS-CoV-2 genome.

“Interest in our technology for viral RNA extraction has grown quickly since our collaboration with Stanford was selected as an XPRIZE finalist,” said Klint Rose, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder of Purigen Biosystems. “We are eager to get this new kit into the hands of clinical lab scientists and to work closely with them to showcase the versatility of our Ionic system and the potential benefits our RNA purification method can have in the fight against infectious diseases.”

Launched in the US market in 2019, the small benchtop Ionic Purification System enables the automated extraction of nucleic acids with dramatically increased yield and quality from a wide range of sample types, including cultured or sorted cells and formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissues. Biological samples are gently lysed and then loaded into the Ionic Fluidics Chip. The system applies an electrical field to the chip and the nucleic acids are isolated in their natural, native form using the company’s core isotachophoresis (ITP) technology. Since the nucleic acids are not bound or stripped from fixed surfaces, nucleic acid loss and fragmentation are minimized while purification-induced bias is eliminated. The simplified workflow requires minimal hands-on time and produces higher yields of high-quality RNA and DNA that are truly representative of the starting sample.

For more information about the early access program for the Ionic Pure Viral RNA kit, please visit https://www.purigenbio.com/applications/ionic-pure-viral-rna.


About Purigen Biosystems
Purigen Biosystems is redefining nucleic acid sample preparation with an innovative platform based on the highly efficient isotachophoresis technology invented by Juan Santiago, PhD, and his team at Stanford University. Purigen’s automated benchtop instrumentation and accompanying microfluidic chip purify nucleic acid samples from a wide variety of sources, including minute or otherwise challenging cancer samples. The purified nucleic acids are then immediately compatible with a wide range of downstream detection methods, including next-generation sequencing, PCR, and other genomic tests. For more information, visit www.purigenbio.com.

Ionic is a registered trademark of Purigen Biosystems, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. All products described herein are intended FOR RESEARCH USE ONLY and NOT FOR USE IN DIAGNOSTIC PROCEDURES.


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