Sat, 08 Dec 2007 14:56:59 -0500 support@imminst.org (ImmInst Forums) IP.Blog 60
Like most paradigm-shifting inventions, it has a beautiful symmetry and mathematical elegance and induces a deja vuesque reverie in many lesser mortals whose subconscious cries, "I should have thought of that".

It's a very simple method that enables a specific region from a single DNA molecule (yes, a single DNA molecule) to be sufficiently amplified for a broad range of analytical and synthetic reactions to be performed. It is so powerful, that one can routinely obtain good quality DNA from a forgotten fingerprint or an old cigarette butt.

But it is not forensic applications that I am ruminating on at the moment. My interest is on the time it takes to amplify a sample of DNA. We have come along way in the past few years so that we can now amplify DNA from whole blood in under half an hour - an extraordinary feat for anyone who has been in the molecular biology feat for longer than 2 years. Even in today's modern labs the extraction of DNA from whole blood takes at least half an hour followed by a further hour on the thermacycler (the PCR machine) to amplify the DNA region of interest. The question is, how can we speed this even further? We hear about the $1,000 genome scan but what about high speed DNA extraction?


The Piko cycler which can apparently amplify DNA in only 10 minutes..
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