2007. High-volume extraction of nucleic acids by magnetic bead technology for ultrasensitive detection of bacteria in blood components. Clin. Chem

cally demanding and laborious procedure performed in molecular diagnostics, harbors the potential for im-provements in automation. A recent development is the use of magnetic beads covered with nucleic acid–bind-ing matrices. We adapted this technology with a broad-range 23S rRNA real-time reverse transcription (RT)-PCR assay for fast and sensitive detection of bacterial contamination of blood products. Methods: We investigated different protocols for an automated high-volume extraction method based on magnetic-separation technology for the extraction of bacterial nucleic acids from platelet concentrates (PCs). We added 2 model bacteria, Staphylococcus epidermidis and Escherichia coli, to a single pool of apheresis-derived, single-donor platelets and assayed the PCs b