Hello,
I purchased a custom made Taqman multiplex qPCR assay with primers and probes in same tube. I have supplied conserved area sequence to thermo fisher. When the assay arrived there was no sequence details of the primer and probes. I did contact thermofisher and they said custom made assays do not give sequence details out as they are proprietary. I was not aware of this and I am so gutted thinking will I be able to publish without primer sequence details? Did anyone came across any publications without sequence details? Did you face same issue and what can I do? These assays cost way more than normal SYBR green primers. Please advice. thanks
That's Thermo-Fisher for you. I could fill a small book with similar tales about this company. That this load of arrogant jerks are in the process of establishing a virtual monopoly in the Molecular Biology market worries me more than a little.
As regards publication, I would say 'Primers and probes were custom-synthesised by Thermo-Fisher. The suppliers declined to supply the sequences.'
This goes against the principle of traceability in scientific research, but it at least places responsibility where it belongs. I think it would be appropriate to put some kind of warning to other potential users in your discussion.
Good luck, and more power to your pen. This kind of thing needs to be stopped.
You can contact the supplier directly with this concern and ask what they suggest. To the best of my knowledge they will then supply a catalog number so that other investigators wanting to replicate your results can order the same thing from them. This is not good enough, but it is better than nothing. If you want to be really cheeky, another option is to purify the PCR product from the spent qPCR reaction tubes and then sequence it.
(Disclaimer; I don't know if that is legal and suggest you seek legal advice before doing so. My advice is based on scientific feasibility only.)
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