Oligo(dT)₃₀ magnetic beads extract and isolate mRNA from crude samples, cell lysates or tissues, by hybridizing with the poly(A) tail. Captured mRNA is available for downstream applications such as cDNA synthesis and RT-PCR.

Given the growing interest in transcriptome studies, it has become essential to be able to isolate mRNA against related species, such as transfer RNA (tRNA) and ribosomal RNA (rRNA). Many RNA purification techniques, however, are non-specific to mRNA. Additionally, mRNA only constitutes a small portion of total cellular RNA, further making purification difficult. Fortunately, by targeting the polyadenylated RNA tail on the 3’ end of mRNA, oligo(dT)-coated magnetic beads can easily extract mRNA under standard hybridization conditions. Once extracted, bound mRNA can conveniently be eluted or serve directly as the primer for cDNA synthesis with reverse transcriptase.