WHO to new PCR users: read the damned manual!
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 …
Category: PCR
Putting PCR into real-time
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 which lets scientists identify the Read More …
The mechanics of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR)…a primer
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 …
The “false-positive PCR” problem is not a problem
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 is useless, Read More …
More testing shows more iceberg
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 …
Sigh, yes, the ‘COVID virus’ is real
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 …
Yes, PCR tests can detect “the COVID virus”
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 …
And another thing…on false positives
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 …
Kits and reagents and viruses
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 …
What does a positive PCR result mean…or not mean?
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 …
Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)…a primer for virus detection
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 …
HTLV-1 primers: a list of some that have been published in the scientific literature
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 …
PCR primers…a primer!
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 …
The structure of DNA… a primer
For an organism or a virus, to grow or replicate, it must make new pieces of itself and assemble those pieces into something functional. Let’s take a short walk through Read More …
Respiratory viruses: the viruses we detect in the human respiratory tract
A list of the viruses we can and do detect in the (mostly upper) human respiratory tract. The standard testing panel/diagnostic menu comprises the influenza A and B viruses, parainfluenza Read More …