Christopher Lee is currently a Senior Field Applications Scientist at Omega Bio-tek. With over 8 years of experience in the biotechnology industry as a FAS and a background in genetics, Chris specializes in providing expert support and innovative solutions in the field of nucleic acid purification workflows.

Transcript

It’s my pleasure to introduce Christopher Lee, Senior Field Application Scientist at OMEGA Bio-tek.

Chris has eight years of experience in the biotech industry as an FAS, with a background in genetics. We’re really fortunate to have a partnership with a company like OMEGA Bio-tek. Chris will be talking about high-volume nucleic acid extractions using the Dynamic Devices Lynx.

Thanks, Chris.

Chris:
Cool. Awesome. Thank you, James, for the introduction.

Yep, so my name is Chris, and I’m a Senior FAS at OMEGA Bio-tek. I have the pleasure of introducing some pretty exciting innovations around optimizing high-volume preps for nucleic acid extractions.

Actually, I brought a couple of props with me today—one of which is sort of the origin of this entire concept. It’s an extra-tall plate, which I’ll talk more about shortly. I’ll just leave it here for now so you can check it out before and after the talk.

Agenda

  • Introduction to the “green boxes”—if they haven’t made it into your lab yet, hopefully they will soon.

  • Overview of cfDNA (cell-free DNA)

  • How cfDNA led to the development of high-volume technology

  • Expansion into plasmid DNA (50 and 100 mL preps)

  • Conclusions and future directions, including potential for high-volume blood preps

Our Advantage at OMEGA Bio-tek

We pride ourselves on offering excellent performance, quality, and value in our products. What truly sets us apart, though, is our outstanding customer support. We aim to provide that small-company feel, backed by the strong reputation of our product line.

Our approach typically follows four steps:

  1. Consultation – Understanding your lab’s specific needs

  2. Evaluation – Running sample tests on the equipment you’d be using

  3. Implementation – Ensuring seamless integration

  4. Customization – Offering tailored reagent formats (e.g., large jugs or single-day kits)

Cell-Free DNA (cfDNA)

Sarah Beth previously gave a great overview of cfDNA. It’s a powerful biomarker and offers a snapshot of what’s happening inside the body. The two most common applications are:

  • Pregnancy screening

  • Oncology

This technology emerged because of the challenges in extracting cfDNA—it’s typically a small fragment, around 170–180 bp or even smaller. We aim to maximize the amount we recover.

At first, labs were asking for 500 µL to 1 mL extractions. Then it jumped to 2 mL, and now we’re commonly seeing 4 mL. Some scenarios even require up to 10 mL. But two blood draws are still better than an invasive biopsy, and that’s the larger impact we’re aiming to support.

The Green Box & Kit Overview

The green box kit has been on the market for about 7 years. It’s widely used in oncology and IPT (Invasive Prenatal Testing). It’s a bead-based format, allowing for variable front-end volumes (1–10 mL).

Processing time:

  • About 65 minutes for proof-of-concept

  • Scalable to 96 samples in ~2 hours using the Lynx 1800 with dual heads

Final solution volumes can be very low—realistically 60–70 µL, accounting for bead and tip comb retention. Using a hybridized machine like the Lynx gives us added flexibility, like magnetized liquid handling for washes and elution.

Tall Plate Demonstration

We’ve got a quick video showing the extra-tall 25 mL plate in action. Even without resuspending, the motors generate enough mixing power to handle a full 20 mL binding volume. The plate’s practical capacity is around 18 mL to maintain safe working limits.

System Components

The core components of our workflow include:

  • A basic ST tool

  • The MagRod XL, developed to handle full 10 mL solutions in a single well

  • A heater shaker for incubations

  • Consumables that scale based on sample number

Magnetic bead-based processing offers clear advantages over liquid handling by moving the beads instead of large fluid volumes, reducing aspiration time and complexity.

Workflow Overview

Using magnetic processing keeps things simple but powerful. Here’s the general flow:

  1. Pipetting Tool – Add lysis reagents to samples in a 24-well plate

  2. Shake & Incubate – Independent shaking allows you to prep additional plates simultaneously

  3. Magnetize & Bind – Using a recessed IMAG-Z position to prevent cross-contamination

  4. Washing & Elution – Complete the bind/wash/elute cycle with MagRod technology

By staggering the process instead of running in parallel, we save time and maximize efficiency—especially useful in high-throughput settings.