Speed. Confidence. Sensitivity. Value. Performance.

As with any scientific technique, it is crucial to ensure that qPCR is undertaken with complete accuracy and reliability. Should this ever fail to be the case, the results can be disastrous. One such situation occurred when two papers, published in 1998 and 2002, highlighted supposed links between the MMR vaccine and bowel inflammation and developmental disorders. Many parents refused to vaccinate their children, and several court cases were undertaken as a result.

However, it was shown that “extraordinarily poor qPCR data,” was produced in the course of the papers’ investigations. There was a failure to follow standard operating procedures, incorrect analysis, overlooked negative controls that were positive, and on one occasion positive results recorded despite forgetting to carry out the reverse transcription step. All of this led to incorrect conclusions.

This is just one example of the dangers of unqualified qPCR, which played a vital role in the creation of the MIQE (Minimum Information for Publication of Quantitative Real-Time PCR Experiments) guidelines. These set out the information that must be reported for a qPCR experiment in order to ensure its relevance, accuracy, correct interpretation and repeatability.

As well as adhering to these guidelines, laboratories undertaking qPCR investigations are still bound by the inevitable requirements for speed and cost efficiency. It is the task of PCR instrumentation, therefore, to ensure that all these requirements are met.

The Eco 48 real time PCR system, has shown itself to have world leading uniformity of ±0.1?C across the block, measured at 95 ?C with no settle time. In comparison to other systems, the Eco has proven that it’s unique and patented heating and cooling system provides exceptionally accurate temperature control, so that researchers can always be completely confident in their results.

Due to the Eco 48’s accuracy applications such as Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) library quantification can be more accurate and impact directly the efficiencies and data quality returned. A significant cost can be associated with poorly quantified NGS libraries. The instrument has been tested and proven to be reliable for 430,000 cycles, still maintaining the ±0.1?C uniformity after what equates to 35 year’s of use.

With MIQE compliance and qualified PCR procedures being critically important, Eco 48 thermal cyclers deliver complete consistency and confidence across the board. The instrument records data from every well with every filter in every cycle, so there is never any fear of a point being missed or misread. The adaptive LED control high-performance optical system installed in the system also removes any uncertainty as to whether unknowns have saturated or are bleaching through light to neighbouring cells – researchers can trust that their result is the correct result, every time.

Why not contact PCRmax and evaluate the system in your own lab? Request a demo and see how the Eco system can improve your real time PCR data. Or contact PCRmax at enquiries@pcrmax.com

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