Digital PCR (dPCR) provides precise and absolute quantification of nucleic acids without a standard curve and without dependence on amplification efficiency. It is ultrasensitive; therefore, appropriate for testing allelic variants and targets of low abundance that are below the sensitivity limit of QPCR. It is also very precise, and is a better tool than QPCR when precise determination of the ratio of several nucleic acid sequences is required.
By employing multiple wells per sample, millions of droplets can be analyzed. Samples are partitioned into ‘droplets’ then large quantities (~20,000 of these partitioned droplets are analyzed using microfluidics technology to provide incomparable precision). Only the positive fraction of the sample is detected; therefore, dPCR can detect mutant alleles in circulating tumor DNA, events as few as 0.01% of cells such as L1 insertions, low-level pathogens, and relative expression in single cells.
Avance Biosciences offers digital PCR services using Bio-Rad’s state-of-the-art Q200 digital droplet PCR system to support clients around the world. We are specialized in assay development, validation, and sample testing to support GLP and cGMP submissions.
Digital PCR Applications
- Cancer biomarker discovery
- Infectious diseases
- Genomic alterations
- Copy number variant analysis
- Point mutations
- Rare variant detection
- Gene expression analysis
- SNP genotyping
- Pathogen detection and load determination
- Absolute quantification of standards
- Library quantification or clonal amplification of samples for next-generation sequencing
- Characterization of low-fold changes in mRNA and miRNA expression
- GMO detection and contamination assessment
When you partner with Avance Biosciences, we give you undivided attention, share our experience and knowledge, and respond to your needs in a timely manner. Contact our technical staff to discuss your next dPCR project!