> We are looking at transferring some of our PCR assays to a microtitre =
> plate format. Does anyone have any experience of this that they can share=
> ?
>> For example, is this method less robust than using microtubes? What sort =
> of throughput gains did you achieve? What sort of microtitre plate/therma=
> l cycler would you recommend - or not, as the case may be. All tips/hint=
> s about how to make a succesful tranfer would be appreciated.
>> Kevin
>
We've played around with this idea as well. From talking to
various people we decided that the best solution was microtubes in a 96
well format (from Advanced Biotechnologies) that could be sealed with a
rubber mat in the Perkin Elmer 9600. This works very well and there is
no need to change anything.
By all accounts the problem with microtitre plates is getting a uniform
temperature across the plate. From a discussion I had with an Anachem
rep once he seemed to think that there were people working on better
plastic formulations that would solve this problem. If you are looking
for particularly high through puts Anachems 384 well Q plates would be
ideal, but only if they improve the plastic. If I were to do this sort
of thing alot I would also purchase a 0.5 - 10 ul multichannel pipette,
it would make life just that little more bearable.
D.A.C. Jones
SCRI
Virology
Dundee
DD2 5DA
Tel 01382 562731
email mbdj at scri.sari.ac.uk
