What is PCR?

The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a biochemical technology used to amplify a specific DNA target in a test tube. In other words, it is a technology that both can find a “needle in a haystack” and then make billion of identical copies of the “needle”. After the PCR reaction, the amplified DNA can be visualized and analyzed by agarose gel electrophoresis. A standard thermal cycler instrument is needed to do the PCR test.

What is qPCR?

The quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) is a biochemical technology used to amplify a specific DNA target in a test tube. During PCR amplification, fluorescent light is generated and monitored by the qPCR instrument.

The qPCR cycle number where the fluorescent light crosses a set threshold level correlates to the amount of gene target in the sample. Therefore, the qPCR reaction do not need an agarose gel electrophoresis analysis after the qPCR reaction. This makes qPCR tests easier and faster compared to PCR tests. A real-time thermal cycler instrument is needed to do qPCR test.

Today, PCR and qPCR are common diagnostic techniques and they are used for a wide variety of applications.

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