Miniprep Tips That Will Save You Time
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The first biochemistry lab I worked in had a policy that you could not use a miniprep kit until you had mastered the “old school” way. This meant making buffers, phenol-chloroform extractions and no columns – it was an all day affair. So when I finally got to perform my first kit-based miniprep, a small tear almost welled-up in my eye… So easy. So fast.
Of course, over time I forgot about my reference point and even the “faster” miniprep seemed to take too long. For a large number of samples, it could take almost an hour… unacceptable! Luckily, there are a couple of simple modifications to the miniprep kit protocol that will increase the speed while decreasing the arthritic thumb.