Recovery of DNA from agarose gel with home-made silica milk

An usefulness of silica milk made with waste ultraviolet light tube for recovery of DNA fragment from agarose gel was represented. The glass milk is a water suspension of 50% fine silica powder prepared by grinding the crushed waste ultraviolet light tube with a porcelain mortar. It was showed that one microliter of the glass milk could bind more than 1 μg of DNA fragment, and DNA fragment in length from 125 bp to 23 kb could be efficiently recovered from agarose gel. The bound DNA could be eluted from the particle of SiO₂ in the glass milk with a yield of about 60%–80%. The eluted DNA could be used in all manipulations in molecular cloning. Biography: Wang Zhuo-hua (1977-), female, M. D, research direction: genetic engineering.