Polymarese chain reaction
Locked and loaded: New applications for LNA in PCR
Locked nucleic acids (LNA) have recently emerged as a powerful new tool for molecular biologists, and interesting new uses for this technology continue to be developed. One of the most promising areas of application for LNA, in addition to antisense-mediated inhibition of mRNA translation and detection of microRNAs, is the use of LNA-based oligonucleotides as primers in PCR and DNA sequencing. [More]
Break out the bubbly: Avoiding air bubbles in PCR microdevices
The emergence of microfluidic PCR devices is one of the most important recent developments in the field of PCR. One of the remaining challenges in this area, in particular for the performance of continuous-flow PCR microdevices, is the circumvention of air bubbles that are generated by high temperatures during the initial startup of thermal cycling protocols. A simple solution to this problem now appears to be at hand. [More]
Nuclear secrets: Quality control of forensic samples using qPCR
Real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) is emerging as the new method of choice for analysing nuclear DNA levels in forensic samples. A useful addition to this technique would be the ability to quantitatively assess the quality of this DNA, as forensic samples often present considerable DNA degradation that must be taken into account during subsequent genotyping procedures. [More]
