Sprecher
Beschreibung
The ability to isolate molecular targets from complex biological samples is crucial for many areas such as diagnostics, genetic analysis, and bionanotechnology. A variety of commercial methods exist for this purpose; however, they are often inflexible with restrictive sample requirements and high cost. Here we introduce LASSO, a simple, cost-effective, and generalized method for the capture of diverse biomolecules on DNA-functionalized smart polymers. LASSO programmably binds targets through the addition of sequence-specific catcher strands. Gentle target pulldown is achieved by triggering polymer agglomeration with combinatorial DNA crosslinker libraries. We demonstrate selective capture of highly relevant biomolecular targets, including DNA oligonucleotides, SARS-CoV-2 RNA, human ribosomal RNA, and human thrombin, with >80% efficiency. Depletion of ribosomal RNA on LASSO enhanced the quality of RNA-seq libraries while exhibiting reduced off-target bias as compared to commercially available methods. Pulldown and release of thrombin take place under native conditions, preserving the protein’s structure and enzymatic function. We anticipate that LASSO will simplify preparative workflows in broad applications including biosensing and transcriptomics.
