Hello Toby,

I've not used the Qiagen kit; I have used and do like the Thermo MagMax kit albeit not for bees. Not sure if you're after parasite or virus RNA/DNA as well; I do know that Thermo has a MagMax kit for that purpose. I've used their MagMax kit in 96-well format both on a KingFisher Magnetic Particle mover and have also done the plate format sans KingFisher. Hopefully someone will have experience and provide some insight.

Jeffrey

I'm after RNA. I'll look into MAgMAx. Thanks

Since your sample is big (half bee), Qiazol (or TRIzol and Columnzol) extraction might be a good choice as you mentioned. But if you are doing 6000+ samples, it will cost a lot by using any Kits with 96-well plates on the market. You probably should consider assembling your own kits with bulk 96 well plates such as 96 well DNA/RNA binding plates (EZ96DBP) and 96 well filter plate (EZ96FTP). The 96 well filter plate can be use as QIAshredder or EZshredder to remove insoluble debris and reduce viscosity. After extracting with Qiazol (or TRIzol and Columnzol), you can load the supernatant to 96 well DNA/RNA binding plate and follow by washing with RW1 and RPE from RNeasy kit (you can buy these solution in bulk) or just simply wash the plate with 80% ethanol instead. After washing, the RNA can be eluted from the plate with DNAse/RNase free water or TE.

Please click here for protocol details using columnzol as example (you can replace it with TRIzol or QIAzol: http://www.enzymax.net/columns/RNA_isolation_column_zol.htm or http://www.enzymax.net/columns/EZCR305-Column-zol%20RNA%20isolation%20Kit.pdf

By the way, if you are using RLT lysis buffer from RNeasy kit for large samples, you can use more lysis solution. But, I would use EZ96FTP filter plate to remove debris and reduce viscosity before loading to the DNA/RNA binding plate. Anyway, I would assemble my own kit if I am doing 6000+ samples. Here is the website for bulk 96 well DNA/RNA binding and filter plate (96 well shredder plate): http://www.enzymax.net/columns/96_well_spin%20_plates.htm.

Here is the website for bulk shredder spin column:

http://www.enzymax.net/columns/shredder_spin_column.htm)