Recovery of nucleic acids from solid supports

A method for recovering nucleic acids from a solid support, the method comprising:

• (a) combining a biological sample with a region of a solid support, wherein the region is absorbent and impregnated with a chaotropic agent;
• (b) washing the region in a washing buffer solution, wherein the washing buffer solution is an alkaline solution;
• (c) simultaneously heating and agitating the region in a further alkaline buffer solution;
• (d) separating the region from the further alkaline buffer solution without centrifugation, wherein the separating of the region from the further alkaline buffer solution is performed by disposing the region in a porous container above the remaining further alkaline buffer solution;
• (e) extracting at least a portion of any remaining further alkaline buffer solution from the region to provide an extracted alkaline buffer solution, wherein the separating and the extracting are performed using different methods;
• (f) combining the further alkaline buffer solution from (d) and the extracted alkaline buffer solution portion;
• and
• (g) subsequently processing the combined buffer solutions in order to amplify any nucleic acids in said combined solution.