The amplified DNA templates are then introduced to primers that are covalently bound to magnetic beads via streptavidin-biotin interactions and are compartmentalized into aqueous microdroplets of a water-in-oil emulsion.
[citation needed] It also allows for the quantification of a sample’s mutant fraction, which can be tracked over time using serial plasma measurements.
[4] In the late 1990s, Vogelstein and Kinzler coined the term "digital polymerase chain reaction"[5] when conducting research into somatic mutations associated with and potentially causative for colorectal cancer.
[2] A fundamental challenge that digital PCR was designed to address was the detection of minor quantities of a pre-determined somatic mutation in larger cell populations.
[5] The results from these studies indicated that digital PCR was able to reliably quantify the relative proportion of variant sequences in a DNA sample.
[7] In 2005, Vogelstein's team published their first clinical data applying BEAMing technology to analyze plasma samples of patients with cancer.