Rapid ionic liquid-based DNA extraction method for molecular diagnostics of urinary tract infections

Rapid and reliable DNA extraction from urine is a critical bottleneck in advancing molecular diagnostics for urinary tract infections (UTIs) in both centralized and decentralized settings. Here, we present an ionic liquid-based DNA extraction method (IL-DEx) that enables recovery of bacterial DNA from urine samples in under 30 minutes using minimal equipment and without hazardous chemicals. IL-DEx was benchmarked against a widely used commercial kit (QIAamp DNA Mini Kit, QIAGEN) using reference strains, clinical isolates, and spiked urine samples.