New SageHLS Purifies Large Fragments of DNA for Long-Range Genomics

Sage Science, a developer of products for improving sample preparation processes in life science applications, have announced the launch of a new platform that can extract and purify extremely large DNA fragments directly from bacterial and tissue cultures, blood samples, or other cell sources. Large DNA fragments are required for long-range sequencing, optical mapping, droplet digital PCR, and more. The SageHLS platform will be on display at the Advances in Genome Biology and Technology (AGBT) meeting in Hollywood, Fla., this week.

Many genomic applications work best with high molecular weight (HMW) DNA, or very large DNA fragments. However, traditional sample preparation processes cannot manage DNA in these sizes, hindering scientists’ ability to capture optimal information from long-read and long-range sequencing, optical mapping, droplet digital PCR, and single-molecule tools. The SageHLS platform (short for HMW Library System) can purify DNA into fragments ranging from 50 kilobases to 2 megabases, providing the high-quality, long fragments needed for resolving haplotypes, structural variants, and other large or linked genomic elements.

“We believe that access to DNA molecules hundreds of kilobases or even megabases long will allow scientists to embrace advanced genomic technologies and reveal new insights about how large DNA elements influence disease and other phenotypes,” said Todd Barbera, Chief Executive Officer of Sage Science. “The SageHLS platform can purify DNA in sizes that no other tool can consistently handle.”

In beta testing, scientists at academic medical institutions have used the SageHLS instrument to extract DNA as long as 2 Mb as well as to perform targeted purification of genomic fragments with CRISPR/Cas9. Additional applications for the system are already under development.

For most samples, the SageHLS can recover at least a microgram of DNA, a sufficient volume for common genome applications. At launch, users will perform traditional library prep after purification on the SageHLS platform, but later versions of the system will directly incorporate this step for a more streamlined workflow.