Two important quality-control instruments are now operational in our molecular biology laboratory:

The Agilent 2100 Bioanalyzer provides electrophoretic analysis of DNA, RNA, and protein samples on a microfluidic chip. It replaces traditional gel electrophoresis with automated, quantitative sizing and concentration data. This is essential for assessing the quality of extracted nucleic acids before PCR, library preparation, or sequencing.

The Qubit 2.0 Fluorometer provides fluorescence-based quantification of DNA, RNA, and protein that is more specific and often more accurate than UV absorbance methods, especially for samples with contaminants that absorb at 260 nm.

Together with our NanoDrop spectrophotometer, these instruments give us a thorough toolkit for assessing sample quality at every stage of the molecular biology workflow.