Research Tool
Aptamer Discovery Kit (DIY)
Added June 2, 2026
Our Aptamer Discovery Kit is a more comprehensive look at aptamers, demonstrating the use of Melting Off SELEX, which is a selection strategy designed to produce structure-switching aptamers through a known and consistent mechanism. By using a constant region—either in the center of the library between two random regions, or towards one end of the library but downstream of the 5’ primer or upstream of the 3’ primer—it is possible to ‘capture’ the library onto a streptavidin-coated magnetic bead via a biotinylated oligo complementary to the constant region. This capture mechanism allows for bound and unbound structure-switching aptamers to be partitioned, because aptamer candidates that respond to target will have to change their structures and effectively ‘melt off’ of the complementary strand immobilized on the magnetic bead in order to bind. An appropriate number of rounds and the specific conditions of each round need to be determined in order to conduct a successful selection. Additionally, appropriate library and buffer/matrix parameters must be considered in order to plan out the specific conditions used during selection.
