Chromatrap™ Pro-A Spin Columns Improve ChIP Assay Performance

Porvair Filtration Group has announced the launch of the first product, a ChIP kit containing 24 assays, based upon its novel Chromatrap™ Pro-A Chromatin ImmunoPrecipitation (ChIP) technology. The exciting new product has been enthusiastically tested at 12 beta sites around the world with excellent results and feedback.

Chromatrap™ is a new technology that offers a quicker, easier and more efficient way of undertaking chromatin immunoprecipitation assays. The new kits use revolutionary Chromatrap™ Pro-A spin columns which contain discs of an inert, porous polymer to which protein A has been covalently attached. During an assay the chromatin/antibody complex is retained by the disc. Flushing with three buffers and an elution step are all that is required to obtain the DNA fragments of interest.

In independent testing Chromatrap™ demonstrated levels of DNA pull down up to 25 times higher than with traditional bead based procedures, excellent DNA enrichment with signal-to-noise ratios typically 2 to 3 times better than competing procedures and top performance even with samples with as few as 15,000 cells per assay.

The new Chromatrap™ spin column approach offers significant advantages compared to methods based on sepharose or magnetic beads, which involve many steps of separation, pipetting and re-suspension. The BioVyon™ protein A discs used in Chromatrap™ spin columns have a proprietary internal structure, composed of pores that have inner surfaces specifically designed to maximize chromatin capture efficiency. Porvair's proprietary disc base material is chemically inert, reducing incidences of non-specific binding. All chromatin capture reactions take place inside the rigid porous disc; therefore there is no need for the many repetitive stages of suspension, collection and resuspension by pipette. Additionally no pre-blocking step is required. The Chromatrap spin column protocol allows washing steps that are fast, efficient and less prone to error and the 'flow through' characteristics of the column ensure excellent sample mixing and washing during the assay.