Our lab is planning to get a PCR instrument and we are planning to demo some instruments. Do any one here have experience of recently purchasing an instrument please share their thoughts, will help me narrow down to some choices.
Function-wise, most of the real-time PCR machine from various companies will satisfy your needs. But there are some minor details you can or need to consider:
1. LED vs Halogen lamp as the light source. As I know the older models (e.g. ABI 7300 and Roche 480) use halogen lamp as light source, the downside of that is the shore life of the light bulb itself. You have to change the bulb every so often and also calibrate them before use. Also with Halogen light, you have to include ROX dye for compensation of uneven brightness to each well. On the other hand, LED light source can last very long time with only minor degradation, therefore no ROX dye is needed in the mastermix.
2. Software interface. As I know, Roche and enpendorf use very similar software, ABI is different from others. And the best software interface I have seen is from, believe it or not, Bio-Rad! It is easy and intuitive. I have seen people with minium computer experiences started using it in a few minutes. And the part I like the most is that it also included gene expression analysis.
3. Some other things to consider, the kind of q-PCR you want to do. There are higher end models can do multiplex (multiple channels) if that's what you planed for your project. And of course the price......
Our lab bought a Bio-Rad CFX-96 after extensive comparison with ABI, Roche, and ependorf. So far, everyone likes it. And as the result, our division purchased another one (newer model with touch-screen control) for public use.
go for the ABI step one or light cycler... i would recomeend the ABI
We have a StepOnePlus and I must say, everyone in the lab is quite positive and it doesn't seem to have much downtime. It can also do Fast PCR (40 min) protocols with the appropriate enzymes.
Function-wise, most of the real-time PCR machine from various companies will satisfy your needs. But there are some minor details you can or need to consider:
1. LED vs Halogen lamp as the light source. As I know the older models (e.g. ABI 7300 and Roche 480) use halogen lamp as light source, the downside of that is the shore life of the light bulb itself. You have to change the bulb every so often and also calibrate them before use. Also with Halogen light, you have to include ROX dye for compensation of uneven brightness to each well. On the other hand, LED light source can last very long time with only minor degradation, therefore no ROX dye is needed in the mastermix.
2. Software interface. As I know, Roche and enpendorf use very similar software, ABI is different from others. And the best software interface I have seen is from, believe it or not, Bio-Rad! It is easy and intuitive. I have seen people with minium computer experiences started using it in a few minutes. And the part I like the most is that it also included gene expression analysis.
3. Some other things to consider, the kind of q-PCR you want to do. There are higher end models can do multiplex (multiple channels) if that's what you planed for your project. And of course the price......
Our lab bought a Bio-Rad CFX-96 after extensive comparison with ABI, Roche, and ependorf. So far, everyone likes it. And as the result, our division purchased another one (newer model with touch-screen control) for public use.
Hi Sridhar,
I agree with Kejun.. There's a lot of points that you should take into account.
ABI softwares are hard to work with, i. e., they are not intuitive. Moreover, at least in Brazil, life technologies don't offer a good support after the selling itself. Lightcycler software and rotorgene software are much more intuitive and easier to work with.
Moreover, I've tried to work with HRM and ABI machine did not worked out. ANd when I tried the same set of primers on ROtorgene machine, it worked very well.
thanks for your valuable answer. i didnt know about the light source. we need to check for the ABI machine installed @our lab. and but i find LIFE tech /ABI good as they offer good support to mumbai ,india.
If you ca afford, the 7900HT Fast Real-Time PCR System would be a good choice. This machine is compatible for 96-well plate, 384- well plate and TLDA (TaqMan Low Density Array) as well and fully automated loading. Many kit protocols from other companies are also providing cycling conditions for this as well. It can be used for gene expression, SNP, CNV, and miRNA analysis as well, especially very helpful if you have to work with large projects.
I suggest you to try a Viia7 from Life Technologies. It save a lot of reagents ( use 1/4 from the normal amount of reagents used by other RT-PRC machines, is reliable and it can be used for more than a real time PCR evaluation. You can use it in the future for libraries validation for NGS
Dear Sridhar. You can rely upon ABI Step One Plus real time machine. It can work at four different wavelenghts. The software also is quite user friendly.
Dear Sridhar. You can rely upon Sacycler real time machine. It can work at four different wavelenghts. The software also is quite user friendly
hi. i have question about ABI Step One Plus real time machine.is this machine suitable for HRM ? But also with installing of software professional ???
- Badges
- Science method