Bio-Rad Introduces SureBeads™, A High-Performance Immunoprecipitation System at an Affordable Price

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. launched the SureBeads Magnetic Bead System, which provides researchers with a faster and easier alternative to agarose beads for immunoprecipitation (IP) at as low as half the price of competitors’ magnetic bead systems. Benefits include reduced antibody consumption and sample loss, very low nonspecific binding, and optimized IgG binding capacity.

Researchers have traditionally used agarose beads to precipitate and enrich proteins prior to western blotting or mass spectrometry. However, this process is time-consuming and labor-intensive, and the beads often perform poorly. Moreover, because agarose beads are porous, the antibody often remains trapped inside the bead where it is unable to properly bind the protein of interest, forcing researchers to use excess antibody.

Magnetic beads are an attractive alternative to agarose beads for several reasons, chiefly ease of use at the bench: magnetization is faster and more convenient than centrifugation for sample precipitation and washing steps. More researchers would likely switch to magnetic beads if they were not significantly more expensive than agarose beads. With the launch of the SureBeads System, scientists now have access to a high-performance, cost-effective magnetic bead system.

SureBeads Protein A & G Conjugated Magnetic Beads are designed to work with the proprietary SureBeads 16-Tube Magnetic Rack, featuring a one-piece removable magnet strip to improve sample handling and eliminate repeated centrifugation steps, allowing researchers to achieve results up to six times faster.

"I have used magnetic bead-based systems for more than three years now, and the quality of the new SureBeads System is among the best in the field,” said Oliver Wueseke, PhD student at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden, Germany. “The real innovation resides in the rack. The slideable magnet, preferred fixation of tubes in the rack, and spacing between tubes that allow easy access to the tube lids make the SureBeads System easy to handle, faster, and more convenient.“