Our lab wants to get an thermal cycler for routine RT purposes, not looking for anything fancy. Any one has heard any reviews of the MultiGene™ OptiMax Thermal Cycler?
Never heard. I have used Bio-Rad and Rotorgene (Qiagen) platforms.
Rotorgene has as advantage that you don't have to centrifuge the tubes (as the platform itself does while performing the run). Good temperature control. However, if you have troubles maintaining an adequate room temperature, it will affect the readings, as this machine uses the air in the room to cool off.
Biorad is an easy-to-use platform. I liked that I could use 96 well plates. Lately I just perform massive experiments. In this case, if you have money, it would be a great idea to invest in a pipetting robot. Saves time, and therefore money.
Both platforms worked well for me. I have a personal preference among them, but is just based upon subjective reasons.
Did not use any other platform.
Whatever you do, don't use biorad. I have used their myiQ and myiQ2 system, and both systems fail to achieve the correct temp in the rim rows/columns. Had better experience with the Eppendorph machine.
Also, there are huge differences between sybr mixes. The best I have tested are Quanta, qPCRBIO, and KAPA.
the best one for conventional PCR is TC-5000 from TECHNO
for real time PCR the best is exicycler 96 from Bioneer
I think this is a very "loaded" question. Firstly, just to clarify, RTPCR is an acronym for "Reverse Transcription PCR", and the instrumentation required for RTPCR and PCR are identical - neither are quantitative. If however you meant "real time PCR", more advanced instrumentation is required. Usually the accepted acronym is qPCR for "quantitative PCR", and you will sometimes see RTqPCR for Reverse Transcription quantitative PCR.
As for the "best" machine, there are things to consider, especially if you are looking for qPCR instrumentation. As Juan mentioned, software is important - is it easy to use? powerful enough for you? Another consideration is how much use will the instrument get. In my experience (this is only me), the BioRad instrument is good in a university setting where it works 3-4 days a week, but breaks down in a diagnostic lab where it works all day and all night 6 days a week. The most reliable I've used for very "hard use" are the ABI instruments, in particular the StepOne series. These have a drawback, however, the software is difficult to use and lacks flexibility. My all-time favourite instrument is the RotorGene by Corbett. This is now a Qiagen instrument, however, so I don't know how much it has changed. A major drawback to this system is the absence of 96 well plate format (some people prefer this, however). In short, I think you could get better advice from the group here if you were more specific in your question.
How many runs per week will be done?
How important is easy to use, flexible software?
How important is it to have an instrument that will very rarely break down? (Note Agilent has good instruments and a great warranty. In our hands the instruments broke down twice yearly on average, but were promptly repaired and returned. This downtime was unacceptable for us, but may be quite acceptable to some.)
It is worth really thinking what the future use of this instrument will be.
Cheers,
Mark
I agree with Mark, RT-PCR is reverse transcription not to be confused with real-time PCR which should be called quantitative PCR or qPCR. Although some (my old PhD supervisor) would argue that if done with care, RT-PCR can be semi-quantitative with the proper controls, I wouldn't agree because i have done numerous comparisons and found that qPCR is a more accurate measure of gene expression.
I also agree with Mark using the Corbet RotorGene and have had great success with it. The main reason I prefer it is that it spins the samples in a rotor and therefore eliminates the temperature variation between samples compared to a plate type machine.
We just bought an Exicycler 96 from Bioneer. The first weird thing is that the manual says that one suppose to stop the machine and have a complete restart before each RT. In fact, the software is instable, and stops the reaction occasionally and freezes up. So beside losing the reaction, the machine becomes unresponsive. Also one has no idea where are you in the course of a classical pcr reaction due to the stupid interface and the random numbers shown - which change all the time. I hope that's just a bug that the company fill fix, and we are not being screwed over. Anyway, if you are into buying gear, probably it is best not to take any chances with "shiny economical" devices. As my former PhD instructor said: in PCR, there is Perkin Elmer. That's it.
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