The present invention provides a process for preparing a functionalised polymeric chromatography medium, which process comprises (I) providing two or more non-woven sheets stacked one on top of the other, each said sheet comprising one or more polymer nanofibres, (II) simultaneously heating and pressing the stack of sheets to fuse points of contact between the nanofibres of adjacent sheets, and (III) contacting the pressed and heated product with a reagent which functionalises the product of step (II) as a chromatography medium.

The present invention provides a method for purifying an intended substance, a kit for purifying the intended substance, and a silicon oxide-binding tag for use in the method and the kit. In the present invention, a complex of a silicon oxide-binding tag and a substance is caused to specifically bind to silicon oxide in a solution for binding, to which solution no salt is added, and binding between the silicon oxide-binding tag and the silicon oxide is broken with use of arginine.

The present invention provides a poly(alkylene oxide) polymer based size selective DNA isolation method for isolating DNA molecules having a size above a certain cut-off value from a DNA containing sample, comprising (a) preparing a binding mixture comprising the DNA containing sample, at least one poly(alkylene oxide) polymer and at least one divalent cation, wherein said binding mixture has a pH that lies in the range of 8 to 10 and binding precipitated DNA molecules to a solid phase having an unmodified silicon containing surface, thereby providing a solid phase having bound thereto DNA molecules having a size above the cut-off value, wherein under the used binding conditions DNA molecules having a size which is less than the cut-off value substantially do not bind to the solid phase; (b) separating the bound DNA molecules from the remaining sample; optionally washing the bound DNA molecules; and optionally eluting the bound DNA molecules from the solid phase. Said method allows the size selective purification of target DNA molecules and is particularly suitable for sequencing applications. Moreover, a kit is provided.

Provided herein are affinity reagents having affinity for particular target, each reagent having a unique DNA barcode, and methods for using the same to measure the abundance of targets in a sample. In particular, methods are provided in which unique barcodes linked to affinity reagents are contacted to a sample to bind antigens if present in said sample. In cases in which the affinity reagents are antibodies and the targets are antigens, antibodies that are bound to their target antigens can be separated from unbound antibodies and the DNA barcode associated with the affinity reagent is amplified, such as with a PCR reaction. In some cases, amplified barcode DNA is subjected to DNA sequencing as a measure of the levels of the target protein in the sample.

Compositions and methods for enriching, isolating, and/or detecting SARS-CoV-2 RNA in a sample are provided. The compositions include the nucleocapsid (N) protein derived from SARS-CoV-2 virus, or a functional fragment or variant thereof, preferably having one or both of R203K and G204R mutations. The compositions are brought in contact with a sample obtained from a subject. The disclosed compositions can be use in methods of detecting SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acids in a sample such as mucus, sputum (processed or unprocessed), bronchial alveolar lavage (BAL), bronchial wash (BW), bodily fluids, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), urine, tissue (e.g., biopsy material), rectal swab, nasopharyngeal aspirate, nasopharyngeal swab, throat swab, feces, plasma, serum, or whole blood, thus, methods of detecting SARS-CoV-2 in such samples are also provided.

The present invention relates to an affinity purification system comprising a polypeptide (protein) that binds selectively (e.g. specifically) and reversibly to its cognate peptide tag (ligand). In particular, the polypeptide comprises: (i) an amino acid sequence as set forth in SEQ ID NO: 1, wherein X at position 77 is selected from alanine, glycine, serine, asparagine, or threonine; (ii) a portion of (i) comprising an amino acid sequence as set forth in SEQ ID NO: 2, wherein X at position 56 is selected from alanine, glycine. serine, asparagine or threonine; (iii) an amino acid sequence with at least 80% sequence identity to a sequence as set forth in SEQ ID NO: 1, wherein the polypeptide comprises alanine, glycine, serine, asparagine or threonine at a position equivalent to position 77 of SEQ ID NO: 1. and wherein the poly peptide comprises histidine at positions equivalent to positions 30, 84 and 85 of SEQ ID NO: 1; or (iv) a portion of (iii) comprising an amino acid sequence with at least 80% sequence identity to a sequence as set forth in SEQ ID NO: 2, wherein the polypeptide comprises alanine, glycine, serine, asparagine or threonine at a position equivalent to position 56 of SEQ ID NO: 2, and wherein the polypeptide comprises histidine at positions equivalent to positions 9, 63 and 64 of SEQ ID NO: 2, wherein the polypeptide binds selectively and reversibly to a peptide comprising an amino acid sequence as set forth in SEQ ID NO: 3, 4 or 5.

A manufacturing method of an operation pipe, which use a gel to perform operations such as separation, extraction, purification, elution, recovery, analysis and the like of target components that are biological components such as nucleic acids. More specifically, a manufacturing method of an operation pipe, with which it is possible to perform operations such as separation, extraction, purification, elution, recovery, analysis and the like of target components in a sealable pipe by operating magnetic particles in the pipe under a magnetic field from outside of the pipe.

Provided herein are methods of purifying messenger RNA (mRNA) by subjecting a preparation comprising in vitro synthesized mRNA to one or more steps of enzymatic digestion with a proteinase, optionally with a further oligo dT affinity chromatography step. Also provided are mRNA purified by the methods described herein.

Provided herein are methods of purifying messenger RNA (mRNA) by subjecting a preparation comprising in vitro synthesized mRNA to one or more steps of enzymatic digestion with a proteinase, optionally with a further oligo dT affinity chromatography step. Also provided are mRNA purified by the methods described herein.

Methods for assaying function and/or activity and/or potency of isomerohydrolase proteins are provided.