¹Department of Radiation Oncology, UC Davis Cancer Center, Sacramento, California, USA

Correspondence: Dr Zelanna Goldberg, Department of Radiation Oncology, UC Davis Cancer Center, 4501 "X" Street, Ste. G-149, Sacramento 95817, California, USA. E-mail: zgoldberg@ucdavis.edu

Received 5 January 2006; Revised 24 July 2006; Accepted 3 August 2006; Published online 12 October 2006.

Abstract

Current translational human studies are moving in the direction of concurrent genomic and proteomic analysis using small clinical samples. Skin tissue, although easily accessible, is difficult to process owing to its natural resistance to mechanical shearing and high levels of RNases and proteases. Currently, these complications result in degraded RNA samples with variable yield. We have developed a method of sequential extraction of high quality RNA and protein from a single 3 mm full thickness skin punch biopsy. This method yields 1–2 g of RNA and 150 g of protein, which is usable in many sensitive downstream applications including microarray, quantitative real-time PCR, two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and Western blot analysis.