Get Rich Quick!

Well, not that kind of rich. It’s a new lab kit from New England Biolabs that lets researchers enrich samples with double-stranded methylated DNA, not grant dollars. The EpiMark Methylated DNA Enrichment Kit uses a macromolecule composed of the methyl-CpG binding domain of human MBD2 fused to the Fc tail of human IgG1, which is itself attached to paramagnetic protein A beads. According to an NEB-Sequenom press release, the technology was developed to study differentially methylated DNA. Looks like the protocol is mostly a few wash steps on a minimum of 4 ng DNA, a magnetic capture, and a 65° water incubation. Interestingly, NEB says each protein A can have as many as four MBD2 domains available to the solvent–each … Continue reading →