>Has anybody heard of TMA? How does it rate as an amplified diagnostic tool?
>
TMA (transcription mediated amplification) is identical to NASBA and both are
isothermal amplification methods based on transcription. The transcription
based amplification methods are extremely suited to amplify RNA sequences and
result in huge amounts of single strand RNA amplification product. Both on TMA
and NASBA there are many publications describing the use for research and
clinical diagnostic purposes.
In our hands the performance of NASBA is always as good as the performance of
PCR. In many cases were the target molecule is an RNA or in cases were
quantification played an important role the NASBA was often better than the
RT-PCR.
Bob van Gemen
Groupleader Molecular Biology
Organon Teknika
Boseind 15
5281 RM Boxtel
The Netherlands
E-mail: bvgemen at am.otbc01.umc.akzonobel.nl
