Graphene Oxide Conjugated Magnetic Beads for RNA Extraction

Abstract A magnetic material that consists of silica‐coated magnetic beads conjugated with graphene oxide (GO) was successfully prepared for facile ribonucleic acid (RNA) extraction. When the GO‐modified magnetic beads were applied to separate the RNA from the lysed cell, the cellular RNAs were readily adsorbed to and readily desorbed from the surface of the GO‐modified magnetic beads by urea. The amount of RNA extracted by the GO‐modified magnetic beads was ≈170 % as much as those of the control extracted by a conventional phenol‐based chaotropic solution. These results demonstrate that the facile method of RNA separation by using GO‐modified magnetic beads as an adsorbent is an efficient and simple way to purify intact cellular RNAs and/or microRNA from cell lysates.