ABOUT TEAM
The team is composed of very passionate scientists, who share competencies and skills about morphology, taxonomy, genetics, phylogenetics, biodiversity conservation, DIY technologies and digital fabrication.
Having already a good experience in conventional laboratory techniques, the team is now aiming at developing tools and protocols to allow routine conservation researches directly in the field, such as the Eastern Afromontane forests to which the team is most dedicated.
PRESS RELEASE
Some people are talking about us…We are going to be famous.
Let’s give a look!.
MULTIMEDIA GALLERY
FAQ
The biodiversity is not homogeneously distributed around the world, in fact it is higher in tropical and sub-tropical areas, which are those where less infrastructures, laboratories (in particular for genetic analyses) and economic resources are available. The kit allows people to carry around a small portable lab wherever they want. It comprises components for extracting, purifying, amplifying and sequencing the genome of any living organism in a few hours and in working conditions that are very different from those of a conventional lab.
Beyond the applications in biodiversity exploration, the kit could play an important role in all the other scientific fields that involve DNA analysis. For instance, the kit could be used in personalised medicine or in customs controls to stop illegal trade of biological specimens or in the analysis of food security. Moreover, the kit will allow carrying out these analyses directly in loco in a few hours, saving time and money.
The kit consists in a portable ‘all in one’ device (average hard case size, about 5-6 kg in weight) containing:
- thermocycler for DNA extraction, amplification and quantification
- lyophilized reagents
- micropipettes, tips, gloves and other useful materials
- sequencer (nanopores technology) to plug into a pc
- software for reading the sequences in text format
- software for adjusting the sequences
- software for blasting the sequences
- power supply (battery packs that run with solar panels)
It is very difficult to make such a comparison because the main components of the kit (thermocycler and sequencer) are still prototypes. However, it is possible to compare the timing. If we consider researches carried out in very remote areas lacking of proper infrastructures, the time needed to obtain DNA sequences to be analysed can become very long. Typically, in fact, only when back from an expedition it is possible to perform genetic analyses on the samples collected. Conversely, using the kit this can be done straight away in the field in a few hours.
Considering that the kit is potentially used in all the fields involving genetic analyses, yes. However, we must keep in mind that in CIS the forensic analyses carried out involve the species Homo sapiens. No available database containing DNA sequences of every single human being is available, yet. Therefore, it is not possible to find a correspondence between a sample (i.e. hair) and the person this sample belongs to, unless having suspects to analyse. This is quite different from the ‘barcoding’ analysis carried out with the kit, which tend to allocate an organism to the proper species.
