• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.35 no.12
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• pp.1309-1316
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• 2011

This paper presents a high-speed RNA microextractor for the direct isolation of RNA from blood lysate using magnetic oligo(dT) beads. The extraction is performed through lateral magnetophoresis, which is induced by a ferromagnetic wire array inlaid. With this RNA microextractor, more than 80% of the magnetic beads could be separated at a flow rate up to 20 ml/h, and the overall extraction procedure was completed within 1 min. The absorbance ratio of RNA to protein(A260/A280) was greater than 1.7, indicating that the extraction technique yields pure RNA. The feasibility of using this technique in reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction procedures was investigated by cDNA synthesis and PCR processes. The results confirmed that the RNA microextractor is a practical device for easy, fast, and high-precision RT-PCR using minimal amounts of reagent.