Steps in the process
The first step in the process is to extract and purify the DNA from all the clinical samples. Some samples like urine and tissue will require additional preprocessing steps to prepare for extraction. Such steps include centrifugation or slicing specimens into smaller pieces. Then each specimen is mechanically lysed using the bead-beating method on the Qiagen TissueLyser.
Now that the cells have been broken open, the DNA is purified using automated extraction. A positive internal control is added to each specimen at the first stage of extraction to ensure that the extraction process was successful. A negative control follows the entire extraction process in order to identify contamination or background.
A critical element is mechanical lysis, which is used to ensure we are performing the best possible method of extracting bacteria as well as yeast, fungi, and molds from different sample sources. In addition, it is essential to have a successful DNA extraction since all downstream testing is dependent upon high quality DNA.
