Pippin systems can be used as a replacement for manual gel purification for any application that requires, or can be improved by, this step. Not only does the system require far less effort than prep gels, but size range collections are selected with software, DNA recovery is comparatively higher, and low molecular weight contamination (including adapter dimers) are virtually eliminated.
The key applications for the Pippin are:
- Library construction for paired-end sequencing
- Template preparation for clonal amplification of DNA on beads
- Library construction for Chromatin Immunoprecipitation (ChIP) techniques
- Isolation of miRNA libraries from adapter dimer and larger cDNAs
Below, a schematic of the Pippin disposable gel cassette shows the principle of using a branched channel to electro-elute DNA from agarose.
The following animation of an early Pippin cassette demonstrates the technological approach:
