Oragene
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Oragene is a device that permits self-collection of genomic DNA from saliva. Oragene first became available to the research community in 2004 [1]. It is used by molecular epidemiologists whose research requires large amounts of DNA from a very large number of donors. The simplicity of collection and the stability of the DNA at room temperature for several years allows DNA collections to be handled entirely by mail. The amount of DNA recovered is comparable to the amount present in 2 millilitres of whole blood. Oragene and DNA Genotek, the company that manufactures it, have been the recipient of several awards including the Red Herring Top 100 Innovators Award in 2004, the Red Herring Top 100 Private Companies in North America in 2005 and selection by the World Economic Forum as a Technology Pioneer in 2006 and a mention in Time Magazine. The kit is used by the 23andMe service.
The inventor of Oragene is H. Chaim Birnboim, whose 1979 'Citation Classic' paper in Nucleic Acids Research described the widely used method of alkaline extraction for plasmid DNA from bacteria.
