Commercialization of a phylogenetic cell separation method for downstream purification of nucleic acids

Abstract The success of all microbiome-based studies is highly dependent on effective sample purification of the target organisms of interest. Characterizing individual organismal components of these metagenomic samples relies heavily upon the ability to separate the individual phylogenetic components, such as removing human cells from the microbiological fraction while preventing sample loss or degradation. This Phase II STTR project aims to continue the development of and commercialize a patent pending simple and inexpensive purification approach aimed at effectively separating and preserving host and microbial DNA from a metagenomic sample. This method will ensure all organismal DNA is preserved (i.e., not “sacrificed” or lost) during initial separation steps, unlike protocols employed by existing DNA purification kit manufacturers. Outcomes result in higher quality DNA sequence data (i.e., higher sequencing coverage and higher sensitivity), thus providing robust information content, leading to higher confidence in organismal characterization. Syracuse Biolabs, Inc. (SBL), has teamed with scientists in the Forensic and National Security Sciences Institute (FNSSI) at Syracuse University to further improve and commercialize this novel DNA purification approach. The Phase I project clearly demonstrated the superiority of the Syracuse Method to currently available kits from Qiagen and Zymo Research. This Phase II project has five aims directed toward continued development of the method into a commercial product for fieldable cell/DNA purification modules of metagenomic samples. Our metagenomic DNA purification kit is also applicable to fields outside of the human microbiome research market, including forensic identification and geolocation of biological samples relevant to criminal and intelligence related activities, DNA based ecological research, plant and microbial based geosourcing, and defense/homeland security efforts (requiring DNA purification from environmental samples).