What are TurboBeads?

Turbobeads were developed* at ETH Zurich in 2007 as a new type of magnetic bead in order to circumvent some of the drawbacks of traditional iron-oxide based magnetic materials and have the following advantages:
  • higher magnetic saturation
  • faster magnetic separation
  • carbon-carbon bond chemistry for reliable surface attachment
  • controlled surface chemistry


* Grass et al. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. (2007) (link) 
 * US Patent 8801936, EP Patent 2086687    and others
Since 2011 we have grown our expertise in nucleic acid technologies, involving nucleic acid handling, extraction and purification. With this know-how we developed new technologies in nucleic acid handling for product tracing, DNA/RNA preservation and DNA data storage applications.

TurboBeads Applications

DNA / RNA purification and handling
Magnetic beads have a long tradition in automated sample handling. Due to the rapid separation and the well controllable surface chemistry, TurboBeads are beneficial over iron oxide base magnetic carriers in magnetic bead DNA purification.
We have focused on DNA purification with magnetic beads in both sequence independent (whole genome extraction / plasmid extraction / PCR work-up) and sequence dependent (DNA enrichment) procedures. 
Magnetic Catalysis
Our particles have been used extensively in chemical catalyst immobilisation, displaying catalytic performances comparable to free, homogeneous catalysts, but rapidly separable from solution by magnetic forces. 

*Schatz et al. Chem. Eur. J. (2012) (link)
*Kainz et al. Acc. Chem. Res. (2014) (link)
DNA Data storage
TurboBeads holds IP in DNA encapsulation technologies. In collaboration with ETH Zurich, this technology was used to store digital data in DNA.

TurboBeads helped to store the LP "Mezzanine" from the Trip-Hop band Massive Attack in DNA and process the DNA to graffiti paint. See wired.co.uk article (link).

TurboBeads helped to store a full episode of Netflix biohackers in DNA, see movie clip below.
Biochemistry
Our line of PEG coated magnetic beads are made for a designed interaction with proteins, peptides and DNA. Due to the anti-fouling nature of the surface proteins do not adsorb on the particle surface, but can be bound in a controlled way by various surface chemistries, including, peptide bonding (amine, carboxy), click chemistry (azide, alkine) and protein interaction (Streptavidin, biotin).