A few weeks back we featured a next gen PCR technology called iconPCR that carries the promise to dramatically impact research. Today we take a customer’s-eye view of the technology.

Dr. Stefan Green, who directs the Genomics and Microbiome Core Facility at Rush University, has been putting the instrument through its paces on challenging projects ranging from pathogen surveillance in Chicago to ultra-low biomass cleanroom samples for NASA. “PCR is both the greatest and worst invention of all time,” he says. “It’s empowered everything in molecular biology, but it introduces biases and artifacts. With iconPCR we finally have adaptive cycling that lets us stop at the right point for each sample.”

Joining him is Yann Jouvenot, Senior Director of Product at n6, who explains how the company designed iconPCR’s AutoNorm technology to take the guesswork out of amplification. “PCR is to genomics what the printing press was to knowledge,” he says. “But unlike a press, PCR doesn’t produce identical copies at cycle two and cycle twenty-five. With iconPCR we’re helping scientists cut cycles before artifacts creep in, which means more accurate data and a better chance for every molecule to be represented.”

* 0:00 “I wanted a device like this a decade ago.”

* 6:41 PCR, the greatest and worst invention

* 10:20 The “slope” method

* 18:00 Protecting small samples

* 28:45 Impact on research?

Together they paint a picture of a deceptively simple but transformative innovation: a thermocycler that adapts in real time, reduces artifacts, saves time and labor, and improves the quality of genomic data.

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