BJS Biotechnologies introduces the UF1 thermal cycler, designed to increase the speed of DNA amplification by up to 10 fold to open up opportunities for the use of PCR in point-of-care diagnosis.
Thermal cyclers raise and lower the temperature in PCR, breaking the DNA strands apart and promoting DNA replication.
These traditionally use a heat exchange block to warm and cool DNA samples in plastic tubes or microtitre plates, but this can result in slow and uneven temperature changes, and exact temperature control is vital for fast and efficient DNA amplification and accurate and consistent results.
The UF1 thermal cycler uses a low-cost, single-use, recyclable consumable that combines the microtitre plate, heat exchange block and attached heaters.
This puts the DNA samples in direct contact with the heating element, resulting in rapid and controlled temperature changes, at up to seven cycles per minute.
The disposable plate is simple to use, decreases user error and eliminates the time and cost involved in cleaning, while reducing the risk of cross-sample contamination.
'UF1 provides reliable and reproducible results within five to six minutes, compared with one to two hours for thermal cyclers that rely on heat exchange,' said Ian Gunter, research and development director, BJS Biotechnologies.
UF1's process speed means that it has potential in situations needing rapid diagnoses - for example, at point-of-care in epidemics such as foot and mouth or swine flu, or for detecting MRSA infections in hospital accident and emergency settings.
Other applications could include biopsies, identification of water-borne disease, detection of micro-organisms in biological warfare or bio-terrorism, tracking contamination in the food manufacturing industry, as well as pharmacogenomics in personalised medicine.
Biotechnica 2010 takes place in Hannover, Germany, from 5-7 October 2010.
