A researcher at Iowa State has developed a DNA sequencer, which will allow for faster analyzing of DNA fragments.

Edward Yeung, professor of chemistry, developed the Multiplexed Fluorescence Detector for Capillary Electrophoresis, which can “look at many samples [of DNA] at the same time.”

With the invention of the instrument, DNA will be sequenced at least 1,000 times faster than it presently can be, according to a press release.

“DNA will be more important in clinical and biological areas, such as disease diagnosis and gene typing,” said Yeung, who is also the program director for the Environmental Science Program at Ames Lab.

Because the sequencer can analyze large amounts of DNA at one time, it speeds up the process, and “should be quite useful,” he said.

The sequencer is made up of two parts.

“One part separates the DNA fragments into different sizes,” he said. “My research group developed a special polymer solution which separates [the DNA] 50 times faster than the present technique.”

“We can put 100 to 1,000 samples together in capillaries and use a scientific camcorder to look at them all at the same time,” Yeung said. “A computer then analyzes the fragments, which all have a different color depending on which base [single unit which makes up DNA] is present.”

The instrument is about the size of two drawers of a file cabinet.

Right now, the instrument is “suitable for research, but not suitable for commercial use,” Yeung said. A demonstration prototype should be available in six months to a year.

“We’re in the initial stage of commercial development. We’ll have to see how the commercial product performs,” Yeung said.

Part of the developmental stage involves licensing the instrument.

“I facilitated the licensing and found a company that was interested in negotiating a license agreement,” said Kannan Grant, of the Center for Advanced Technology Development.

There is no other prototype of its kind in any lab that he knows of, Grant said.