title: Application of the BioRobot EZ1 in a forensic laboratory.
abstract: In a forensic laboratory, the routine application of an automated DNA extraction and purification robot has to fulfil several conditions, like producing reproducible DNA's of sufficient quantity and quality from all the different forensic biological stains relevant to various carrier materials. In this study, the suitability of the BioRobot EZ1 system from QIAGEN (Hilden, Germany), which offers fully automated extraction and purification of nucleic acids using magnetic bead technology, was tested. In summary, the DNA's obtained from the BioRobot EZ1 for different forensic relevant biological materials showed a quantity and quality comparable to those of the forensic standard protocols normally used in our laboratory. The system saves time, because there is no need of any further purification or concentration step after the automated DNA extraction. It can also be used as a replacement for time consuming organic extractions. A disadvantage of the system was the unsteady quality of the chemical regencies used by the robot. Nineteen different lots were tested with a self designed test system.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Legal Medicine, Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, Frauenlobstrasse 7a, D-80337 München, Germany. katja.anslinger@rechts.med.uni-muenchen.de
authors.forename: Katja
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Anslinger
authors.forename: Birgit
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bayer
authors.forename: Burkhard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Rolf
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Keil
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Eisenmenger
mesh_terms: D004247:DNA / Q000097:blood / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D016172:DNA Fingerprinting / Q000295:instrumentation*; D006801:Humans; D008280:Magnetics; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012371:Robotics
chemical_list: D004247:DNA