September 2026—New England Biolabs released the Monarch Mag Cell-free RNA Extraction kit, which enables isolation of low-abundance cfRNA and exome-associated RNA from biofluids including plasma, serum, urine, and cerebrospinal fluid.
The kit aims to address two challenges in total circulating RNA extraction: DNA carryover and loss of small RNAs. Chaotropic salt-based chemistry, in combination with magnetic silica beads, offers an alternative to phenol-based and vacuum manifold workflows. Lyophilized DNase minimizes contaminating DNA. The result, the company says, is a pure cfRNA signal across the size range of circulating RNA, including long noncoding RNAs, small RNAs, and microRNAs.
The kit complements NEB’s Monarch Mag cfDNA Extraction kit and pairs with the NEBNext UltraExpress Library Prep kit for total transcriptome analysis, NEBNext Low Bias Small RNA Library Prep kit for small RNA profiling, and digital PCR for amplification-based workflows.
New England Biolabs, 978-927-5054