Conventional nucleic acid extraction relies on a sequence of chemical interventions: chaotropic salts to disrupt cell membranes, detergents like SDS to solubilise proteins, reducing agents such as DTT to break disulfide bonds in sperm heads, and then a series of washes to remove all of those things before you can use the DNA.

Each chemical added creates a downstream problem to be solved. Each wash step is a further opportunity for sample loss.

The Exymes approach replaces most of that chemistry with temperature.

1. At 75°C, our thermophilic proteinase activates. It lyses cells, destroys nucleases, and strips DNA of proteins. No ionic detergent required.

2. Because nothing inhibitory is added, the laborious purification steps that follow conventional lysis are no longer needed. The extract goes straight to downstream analysis.

3. At 95°C, the proteinase is destroyed. The DNA is clean, single-stranded, and ready for STR, PCR, qPCR, or NGS without further treatment.

4. For more challenging sample types (bacteria, sperm, plant material), additional mesophilic enzymes activate at lower temperatures to degrade cell walls before the proteinase takes over. All of this runs sequentially in the same tube, in the same thermal cycler run.

5. The result: approximately 81% less plastic per 1,000 reactions, no chemical waste stream, and a workflow that runs in under 20 minutes on standard laboratory equipment.

The chemistry is simpler because less chemistry is involved.