DNA PCR on AA
How many times have you been running PCR DNA replication in an expensive lab machine, and thought, “there has to be a better way!” It’s not the most attractive thing in the world, but Texas A&M researchers have created a miniature DNA replicator that runs on DNA batteries, and will dupe your DNA in 20 minutes.
In the new device, created by graduate student Nitin Agrawal, a centimetre-wide loop of tubing wraps in a vertical ring around a set of three metal rods. The rods, together the size of an AA battery, are kept at three different temperatures. With this set-up, the parts of the tube closest to each block are heated differently.
Unfortunately, similar equipment is not available for preparing the sample in the first place, so your hopes of running your genome on a camping trip will have to wait. But modern science marches on.
