BioAnalyzer Results

Introduction

We use the Agilent BioAnalyzer (BioA) to assess the distribution of lengths in RNA or dsDNA samples. The BioA operates with microfluidic chips and uses about 1 \(\mu\)l of sample to do a gel electrophoresis assay. Each chip can run 11 samples at a time.

Basic Operations

In both RNA and DNA mode, there are 'regular' and high-sensitivity chips but there is a gap between their sensitivity ranges. For DNA samples we do a qubit measurement first to see which sensitivity we need. If a sample is on the edge, we will generally use the high-sensitivity chip and dilute the sample to get it in range.

On-Line BioAnalyzer Reports

To speed reporting and sharing results, we process the BioA output to generate an HTML-based report of the samples for each invesigation. Additions to the report are announced by emails which include the names of the samples that have just been processed.

Since the chips only process 11 samples at a time and we try to fill the chips whenever possible, it is common for an email to refer to only some of a set of recently submistted samples. The remaining samples will be processed soon.

The report has been recently modified to make printing easier. Each sample starts a new page and the image and tabular reports generally fit on a single page. However not all browsers correctly support this. Google Chrome seems to work well.

For RNA samples, the RIN number is under the Overall Results tab.

To reach the on-line reports do the following:

• login to the NGSC website
• when you login you will see recent BioA results

To get more information on older samples:

• click on Progress // My Samples to see your samples.
• if a sample was bioanalyzed, it will have an icon at the left which you can mouse over.
• too see more results click the BioA Results link in the tool bar at the bottom of the screen.

Resources

• Agilent
  • Troubleshooting
  • More Troubleshooting
• Kit Specifications
  • DNA
  • RNA
• Pico Kit
  • Effects of Excess Salt