microgen - Real Time PCR

We are now offering our new Applied Biosystems 7500 Fast Real-Time PCR machine for real-time PCR applications. The ABI 7500 Fast Real-Time PCR system has a new high-speed thermal-cycling block and new master mix formulations that allow the user to perform real-time PCR runs in less than 40 minutes. Variable excitation and five-color detection allow the use of several dyes, including FAM/SYBR Green I, VIC/JOE, NED/TAMRA/Cy3, ROX/Texas Red, and Cy5, for greater assay versatility. With this one machine, we can perform a variety of applications, including absolute and relative quantification, identify gene expression changes, detect and quantitate pathogens, and SNP genotyping. The presence or absence of transgenes and other target sequences also can be determined.

The machine runs in fast mode or standard mode. The fast mode can be run in 40 minutes, but requires the use of specific "fast" PCR Master Mixes. There is already a TaqMan Fast Universal PCR Master Mix available from ABI, and a fast version of the SYBR Green Master Mix should be available soon. The standard mode cycling conditions are the same as those used on the older ABI7700 and take approximately 2.5 hours to complete the run.

Assays can be developed in several ways. Customers can purchase predesigned primer/probe sets online (TaqMan Gene Expression Assays), Applied Biosystems will design primer/probe sets based on submitted sequences (Custom TaqMan Gene Expression Assays), or customers can design their own assay with Primer Express 3.0 software. With the primer picking software, the user can select to purchase the primer set separately from the probe, for those using SYBR Green detection.

If you need more information about the ABI 7500 for your real-time PCR needs, please contact Dr. Gillaspy or Mandy Gipson.