Fast extraction, amplification and analysis of genes from human blood

In order to shorten the time spent on the sample preparation for gene analysis, a novel method was proposed through the combination of fast DNA extraction and purification by Generation capture disk, amplification by capillary polymerase chain reaction, and confirmation of amplification products by microchip electrophoresis. With this method, 3 μL blood was enough to obtain adequate target fragments in human genes. Under the optimal conditions in each step, the sample preparation for eight fragments in β-globin gene and four fragments in ras gene could be finished within 20 min. Since all the experiments were performed on commercial instruments, this method showed a wide range of applicability. In addition, other advantages such as fast speed and low consumption of samples were demonstrated. All these merits proved that such a combination method was of great potential for the clinical diagnostics.