Separating specific biomolecules from a sea of complexity has always been a challenge in biology. Traditional methods rely on expensive enzymes or magnetic beads that often pull down the wrong targets along with the right ones. Off-target effects, high costs, and fragile reagents have long been accepted as limitations that researchers must work around.

LASSO changes this equation. Built on dynamic crosslinking, it uses DNA crosslinker libraries to trigger a gentle phase change in solution. The polymer network self-assembles into a soft network that selectively engulfs its chosen targets, whether it is DNA, RNA, or proteins, while leaving everything else behind. To the user, the effect looks almost magical: add the right “keys,” and molecules that once seemed inseparable suddenly sort themselves with precision.

This shift in how separation works is more than a clever trick. It means researchers can capture viral RNA without damaging it, pull down proteins while preserving their activity, or deplete ribosomal RNA from sequencing libraries with much fewer off-targets than the best kits on the market. Because the process depends on simple polymers, it is robust, stable for years, and inexpensive compared to conventional kits.

The result is a technology that feels simple in the lab but is powerful in its implications. For diagnostics, it means capturing viral RNA directly from patient samples under native conditions. For transcriptomics, it means cleaner data with less noise from off-target depletion. For protein research, it means isolating enzymes that still work when they come out of the pulldown. All of this stems from the same idea: let dynamic DNA crosslinkers reshape matter in ways that were once out of reach.

With LASSO, the “magic” of molecular selectivity is no longer a promise locked in expensive consumables — it is a tool every researcher can use to make biology more precise, reproducible, and accessible.