New purification system launched by Promega includes Ceres Nanosciences’ Nanotrap® particles for virus concentration

Wastewater testing labs can now scale up their infectious disease surveillance using two reliable technologies in a single kit. The new system released by Promega Corporation pairs the company’s Maxwell HT chemistry® with Ceres Nanosciences’ Nanotrap® particles, an established technology for capturing and concentrating low-abundance analytes such as viral particles. Together, these technologies empower labs to purify pathogen nucleic acids from wastewater samples in high-throughput workflows.

“Ceres has a technology that enables concentration of microbes from wastewater that is unique to the market,” says Brandon Krueger, Promega Field Support Scientist, “so it worked quite well for Promega and Ceres to join together to make this a better process overall for wastewater testing labs.”

The new system joins a growing Promega portfolio of technologies used for wastewater-based epidemiology, including multiple workflows for purification and amplification of viral nucleic acids.

High-Throughput Wastewater Testing 

Wastewater testing emerged as a critical public health tool during the COVID-19 pandemic. Viral particles found in sewage correlate strongly with infection rates, and often can be used to predict outbreaks up to a week before a rise in positive clinical tests. Many wastewater surveillance programs have expanded to include diseases such as polio, monkeypox and influenza.

Using the new kit offered by Promega, wastewater testing labs use the Ceres Nanotrap particles to concentrate viral particles present in wastewater samples. Next, labs use the established Maxwell® HT chemistry to purify nucleic acids such as DNA and RNA. Those nucleic acids can then be amplified and detected using methods such as quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) or digital PCR (dPCR), or used in sequencing applications.

“As wastewater-based epidemiology has expanded, it has become clear that it is incredibly valuable to pair the reliable and easy-to-use Nanotrap particle concentration method with strong purification methods,” says Robbie Barbero, Ceres Chief Business Officer. “We are very excited that labs can now get the Promega Maxwell® HT chemistry and the Nanotrap technology in a single kit.”

The kit is designed to be implemented on a variety of automated liquid handlers, allowing labs to save time and resources by automating all necessary pre-processing and post-processing for detecting viral nucleic acid from wastewater samples via qPCR. Promega Field Support Scientists offer comprehensive support for labs implementing Promega chemistry on any liquid handling platform, including robot programming and process optimisation.

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About Promega

Promega Corporation is a leader in providing innovative solutions and technical support to the life sciences industry. The company’s portfolio of over 4,000 products support a range of life science work across areas such as cell biology; DNA, RNA and protein analysis; drug development; human identification and molecular diagnostics. For over 40 years these tools and technologies have grown in their application and are used today by scientists and technicians in labs for academic and government research, forensics, pharmaceuticals, clinical diagnostics and agricultural and environmental testing. Promega is headquartered in Madison, WI, USA with branches in 16 countries and over 50 global distributors. 

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