azooka life sciences, a specialty fluorescent dye company with focus on bringing safe fluorescent stains for application in biological sciences and genomics, is now ready with a patent pending food grade nucleic acid gel stain. Known as tinto rang, the nucleic acid gel stain is developed from a plant source. The company claims that it is the safest and fastest stain in the world market.

The company is seed funded and incubated by Society for Innovation and Development, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. “Our focus is to develop safe DNA/RNA fluorescent stains for applications in biological sciences and genomics. tinto rang is the first ever food grade nucleic acid gel stain making it the safest option currently available in the world,” said Dr. J Fathima Benazir, co-founder and CEO, azooka life sciences.

Dr. Benazir who completed her postdoctoral research from the Indian Institute of Science recently, announced the discovery of tinto rang, here recently.

“We are thrilled with this much needed discovery. tinto rang stains in 30 seconds while SYBR Gold takes 10 minutes. It is also 7 times more sensitive than Ethidium Bromide, making it the world’s safest and fastest DNA/RNA stain,” she added.

The best property of tinto rang is that it does not alter the structure of the DNA and can be used for multiple tests, said Prof. H S Savithri,who played a crucial role in the research activities of azooka.

"Now tinto rang will be available for researchers and businesses in molecular diagnosis space in India by second quarter of 2016. We are ready with a global plan for tinto rang, to be made available in key markets via select distributors and partners by the fourth quarter of 2016,” said Alex D Paul, cofounder and president, azooka.

According to the company, tinto rang would be safe even on consumption as it is a food additive and thereby would play a significant role in protecting the scientific community from exposure to carcinogens and mutagens. The production and easy availability of a safe nucleic acid stain in India will have direct impact on the cost of molecular diagnostics, by eliminating import and excise duties. In addition it will also cut down handling and disposal costs. Further it will help build an ecosystem for assay kit and master mix kit manufacturers.

Researchers in DNA analysis, DNA forensics and genomic labs are constantly exposed to toxic and carcinogenic nucleic acid stains. The currently available nucleic acid stains are synthetic and are known to cause mutations and adversely affect health. They alter the structure of the DNA due to their strong interactions. The improper disposal of these stains causes environmental and aquatic hazards. Although several handling and safety practices are followed, the exposure to these chemicals becomes inevitable during their long term use, stated the company.