Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) use in the pathology lab differs from research-based PCR in two fundamental ways, namely quality and clinical expertise. These are essential to producing a clinical diagnosis supported by Read More …
The quote below has been circulated for a while, amplified by those with no PCR understanding. Its focus is to make you believe that too many PCR cycles create false Read More …
The World Health Organization (WHO) recently published (14th Dec 2020, then updated 20th Jan 2021) a piece of advice for laboratories testing for SARS-CoV-2 using PCR. The advice boils down: Read More …
Three letters have been very busy in 2020: P. C. and R. The Polymerase Chain Reaction. It’s a tiny, thermally controlled, cyclical, enzyme-driven, chemical reaction that lets scientists identify the Read More …
The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a technique for copying a piece of DNA a billion-fold. As the name suggests, the process creates a chain of many pieces, in this Read More …
If you haven’t seen all the chatter that states PCRs using more than thirty-something (someone even suggested 25 to me!) cycles will suffer from false positives, and so are useless, Read More …
COVID-19 case numbers are rising quickly in many parts of the northern hemisphere. Already some totals have outstripped the peaks seen in the first wave of the pandemic. Europe and Read More …
There has been talk out thar in the wildlands of Twitter from people who don’t believe the evidence that the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is real. Has Read More …
I was asked to write some comments for a fact check article about some of the myths going around about PCR-based testing and whether PCR tests can detect “the COVID Read More …
Sometimes the full story can’t fit into a media article. A lot of words can be said during an interview with a journalist but sometimes it’s just really hard to Read More …
The COVID-19 pandemic has driven the use of the words “kit” and “reagent”. I completely feel for you if you still have no real idea of what is meant by Read More …
The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has remained a hugely important laboratory tool for decades. Subtle changes to the enzymes and drastic changes to the detection of a result have occurred Read More …
The reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) is a cyclical enzyme-driven amplification technique for copying a chain of DNA into billions of new copies. IMPORTED POST* What it does well The Read More …
In recent weeks there has been a surge in media interest about a virus called human T-lymphotropic virus I (HTLV-1) that is present among the Indigenous Australians living in communities Read More …
The polymerase chain reaction (PCR, described here) works mainly because of two components – a heat-stable DNA polymerase enzyme (adds new nucleotides to a chain of nucleotides) and a pair Read More …