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This seems interesting for my work. Can it run DNA extractions on environmental samples? Have you benchmarked against any synthetic communities?

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We have not processes any environmental samples yet. Previously we have looked at Zymo microbial community, that as far as it goes with synthetic communities. But with some fluidics focussed work, I dont see it would not be possible to extract DNA from environmental samples.

What specific samples did you have in mind?

I have high biomass samples from soda lakes (high salinity and alkalinity). Other people in my lab work with soil samples, samples from methane seeps, and low biomass samples from rocks. It could also be useful for wastewater samples.

What’s the general pricing structure? It sounds like you can do 24 samples at once? Approx how much does each sample end up costing (for dna extraction and library prep?).

Those sample might be hard to process on the current form of Callisto. The instrument is priced at $125k. Your per sample cost comes down to $20 - $100 depending on the workflow.

For several workflows Volta provides reagents as well. So that will be your all in cost essentially.

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