About Shimadzu

Shimadzu Corporation has released the MCE-202 "MultiNA", a microchip electrophoresis system for DNA/RNA analysis. This system provides completely automated, high-speed agarose gel electrophoresis*, and reduces running costs.

Running costs for the MultiNA are comparable to or less than agarose gel electrophoresis costs, and 1/4 or less than equivalent-class microchip electrophoresis systems. In addition, manual operations involved in pre-treatment, separation, detection, and preparation of data have been completely automated. Supporting all types of research, the MultiNA is capable of analyzing DNA/RNA separation size (length) quickly, simply and reliably, for up to 120 cycles. This product was exhibited at the JAIMA Show 2007, held at Makuhari Messe, Chiba from August 29th to the 31st.

*Agarose gel electrophoresis: Nucleic acids (DNA/RNA) become negatively charged when dissolved in a buffering solution. When this solution is added to agarose (one of the main components of agar) gel, and then subjected to electrophoresis, nucleic acids will migrate as a result of their molecular weight. An electrophoresis pattern of these nucleic acids is obtained by staining the sample with a fluorescent agent. The resulting pattern provides information on molecular weights and the individual identification.

*Microchip electrophoresis: This method uses electrophoresis to separate target substances, utilizing a device with microfabricated grooves on a glass or plastic substrate. Applied in the life sciences as next generation technology, it offers the advantage of high-speed micro analysis.

Background to New Product Development

Pre-treatment of DNA and RNA nucleic acid samples requires confirmation of sample size (length) and approximate quantitation. Agarose gel electrophoresis systems are the most widely used devices to provide this confirmation. Next in popularity are microchip electrophoresis systems, which perform agarose gel electrophoresis on microchips.
Agarose gel electrophoresis systems require a considerable amount of manual labor, using separate equipment in each of six stages, from gel preparation to data processing. In contrast, microchip electrophoresis systems perform these six processes within a single device, are normally used for applications involving quick sample size confirmation, and generally offer only rough separation. However, even though the need for these systems is great, their running costs are fairly high, which has slowed the transition from agarose gel electrophoresis systems to microchip electrophoresis systems. Fortunately, the Shimadzu Corporation's development of a reusable microchip has resulted in running costs comparable to or less than those for agarose gel electrophoresis. In addition, by offering reagent kits that correspond to separation size (length), a product capable of completely automatic high-speed analysis has been developed, ensuring simple operability, high separation, and high repeatability.

A summary of the features of this new product are as follows:

Reduces running costs

By developing a reusable microchip and by creating reagent kits that correspond to separation size (length), DNA analysis with this product can be run at under 25 yen per sample analysis. This is comparable or superior to the cost of agarose gel electrophoresis (28 to 76 yen per sample analysis), and less than 1/4 the cost of equivalent-class microchip electrophoresis systems. (Calculated based on standard price information collected by Shimadzu)

Provides complete high-speed automation of up to 120 cycles and efficient automatic analysis, starting from just 1 sample

The MultiNA is capable of registering up to 120 analysis cycles, completely automating the analysis process. Further, it can also perform efficient automatic analysis starting from just 1 sample, a feature that equivalent-class devices do not offer. Also, a set quantity of reagent is automatically injected, meaning that only minute amounts of important samples (minimum: 2 μL) and high-cost reagents need to be used. At the same time, this also prevents the loss of reagent through operation errors and operator-induced data variances.

Ensures high separation and repeatability with a short separation flow channel microchip

Select the optimal kit from four types, corresponding to the DNA/RNA sample size range being analyzed. Migrating two internal markers (with low and high molecular weights) together with the sample corrects the variance characteristic of the electrophoresis method, ensuring high separation and repeatability.

All-out pursuit of speed and convenient operability

After an analysis schedule is created, users simply need to set the sample and the reagent, and click the start button. All processes are completely automated; from microchip rinsing, filling with separation buffer, introduction of sample and electrophoresis separation, all the way to data analysis. In addition, the MultiNA is equipped with a variety of support tools that help simplify analysis schedule creation.