In the past few years, we have covered plenty of amazing robots for students. Bernie happens to be a robot for scientists. This DNA purifying robot has an open source design. It can perform DNA purifying procedures with magnetic beads.
This robot can remove short DNA from the solution or both long and short DNA strands. It is fully automated. Here is how it works:
Robot adds the beads to the sample. The desired DNA binds to the beads, while undesired impurities stay in the solution. Then, magnet approaches the tube and pulls the beads with DNA to the wall of the tube. The pipette removes liquid with impurities, while DNA stays on beads. After washing, robot adds an eluent to the tube. The eluent detaches DNA from magnetic beads. Robot then pulls the beads to the wall of the tube again and transfers eluted DNA to a new tube.
This robot is a prototype at this point but can perform well on actual samples already. You can find it on Kickstarter at this time.
[HT]
