'We've found that DNA and RNA respond to electric fields in a way that is very different from other molecules,' Marziali said.

'By exploiting this unique property, we were able to extract high quality DNA from a highly contaminated sample from the Athabasca oil sands,' he added.

The new technique has been successfully tested on samples provided by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).

It will have applications from basic life-science research to forensic sample analysis, bio-defence and pathogen detection for food safety and clinical diagnostics.

The university said it will commercialize the technique through its own company Boreal Genomics.

The research has been published in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.