Lexogen Launches the TraPR Kit for Isolation of Functional Small RNAs

VIENNA, June 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today Lexogen, the transcriptomics and next-generation sequencing company, launched the new TraPR Small RNA Isolation Kit. TraPR (Trans-Kingdom, Rapid, Affordable Purification of RISCs) is a breakthrough method that enables a gel free isolation of functional small RNAs (sRNAs) and allows for a cost-efficient, accurate, and highly reproducible analysis of sRNAs that carry important biological information.

Regulatory small RNAs play an essential role in mRNA turnover, translational regulation, and chromatin compaction and hence are important regulators of gene expression. These sRNAs associate with specific proteins of the Argonaute family (AGOs) to form RNA-induced silencing complexes (RISCs) and guide the AGO proteins to their respective targets in a process termed RNA interference.

TraPR Small RNA Isolation Kit enables the specific isolation of loaded AGO proteins via a short and simple single column purification. As a species-independent method, TraPR does not require any prior characterization of the sample. By purification of RISCs the TraPR Small RNA Isolation Kit enriches exclusively fully functional, physiologically relevant sRNAs including piRNAs, siRNAs, miRNAs, and scnRNAs. These sRNAs can be extracted even from degradation-prone material or from samples that are notoriously hard to work with, like plant material, whole blood, and plasma. Contaminating RNAs such as degradation products of tRNAs, rRNAs, and mRNAs are effectively excluded from the purified RISC fraction. Hence, TraPR enables the universal, fast, and bias-free isolation of RISCs and provides an accurate representation of functional silencing sRNAs without requiring tedious and time-consuming gel extraction steps. As TraPR exploits the conserved biochemical properties of all AGO-family proteins it is a universally applicable method that outperforms all current procedures for sRNA profiling. The TraPR Small RNA Isolation Kit generates high-quality sRNA preparations suitable for Next Generation Sequencing and can be perfectly combined with Lexogen's Small RNA-Seq Library Preparation Kit.

TraPR can be used for a wide range of applications where functional sRNAs play an important role, including discovery of novel biomarkers for the detection of diseases or monitoring of the response to drug treatments.

"Small RNA analysis was always extremely tedious and messy. TraPR is so easy and clean, that finally we can make large scale profiling and diagnostic sequencing of small RNAs feasible. I am really looking forward to all the new discoveries that will be made with this new gold-standard," says Alexander Seitz, CEO and founder of Lexogen.

The TraPR method has been developed by Olivier Voinnet's group at the Department of Biology at ETH Zurich, Switzerland and was published last week in the journal Nucleic Acid Research. Lexogen has exclusively licensed TraPR from the ETH Zurich.

Original publication: Grentzinger, T., Oberlin, S., Schott, G., et al. (2020) A universal method for the rapid isola­tion of all known classes of functional small RNAs. Nucleic Acids Res. DOI:10.1093/nar/gkaa472

About Lexogen

Established in 2007, Lexogen is a transcriptomics and Next-Generation Sequencing company, focusing on the development of innovative methods for RNA analysis. Its portfolio includes multiple innovative and well-established protocols for RNA sequencing sample preparation, external RNA spike-in controls, as well as bioinformatics tools and sequencing services. Lexogen is a privately held company, headquartered in Vienna, Austria with a subsidiary in New Hampshire, US.

For more information about Lexogen visit www.lexogen.com and follow @lexogen.

Contact person at Lexogen
Jekaterina Aleksejeva
Senior Marketing Manager
E-mail: [email protected]
Tel.: +43 699 1023 8946
www.lexogen.com

SOURCE Lexogen

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