Provided are solid supports that contain at least one hydrophilic ligand; and at least one hydrophobic ligand, where amount of the at least one hydrophobic ligand on the solid support relative to the amount of the at least one hydrophilic ligand on the solid support is adjusted for binding target nucleic acid(s) from a sample onto the solid support and/or for eluting the bound target nucleic acid(s) from the solid support, so that the amount of target nucleic acid(s) bound to the solid support and/or recovered after elution from the solid support is about 5% to about 500% greater than the amount of target nucleic acid(s) bound to the solid support and/or recovered from the solid support in the absence of either the at least one hydrophobic ligand or the at least one hydrophilic ligand or both. The solid supports with ligands are used for isolation of nucleic acid molecules from samples.