RT Journal
A1 Nakane, Jonathan
A1 Broemeling, David
A1 Donaldson, Roger
A1 Marziali, Andre
A1 Willis, Thomas D.
A1 O'Keefe, Matthew
A1 Davis, Ronald W.
T1 A Method For Parallel, Automated, Thermal Cycling of Submicroliter Samples
JF Genome Research 
JO Genome Research 
YR 2001 
FD March 01 
VO 11 
IS 3 
SP 441 
OP 447 
DO 10.1101/gr.164401 
UL http://genome.cshlp.org/content/11/3/441.abstract 
AB A large fraction of the cost of DNA sequencing and other DNA-analysis processes results from the reagent costs incurred during cycle sequencing or PCR. In particular, the high cost of the enzymes and dyes used in these processes often results in thermal cycling costs exceeding $0.50 per sample. In the case of high-throughput DNA sequencing, this is a significant and unnecessary expense. Improved detection efficiency of new sequencing instrumentation allows the reaction volumes for cycle sequencing to be scaled down to one-tenth of presently used volumes, resulting in at least a 10-fold decrease in the cost of this process. However, commercially available thermal cyclers and automated reaction setup devices have inherent design limitations which make handling volumes of <1 μL extremely difficult. In this paper, we describe a method for thermal cycling aimed at reliable, automated cycling of submicroliter reaction volumes.