Later, the PCR process was adapted to the use of thermostable DNA polymerase from Thermus aquaticus, which greatly simplified the design of the thermal cycler.
Other cyclers have multiple blocks with high heat capacity, each of which is kept at a constant temperature, and the reaction tubes are moved between them by means of an automated process.
Miniaturized thermal cyclers have been created in which the reaction mixture moves via channel through hot and cold zones on a microfluidic chip.
Thermal cyclers designed for quantitative PCR have optical systems which enable fluorescence to be monitored during reaction cycling.
Some thermal cyclers are equipped with a fully adjustable heated lid to allow for nonstandard or diverse types of PCR plasticware.
Baby Blue, a prototype automated thermal cycler built around 1986
A very early PCR machine which, rather than cycling through different temperatures, uses three different
water baths
at constant temperatures between which samples are moved with a
robotic arm
video shows working of three commercially available thermal cycler machines, the first one uses Peltier Element and one the available product is eppendorf Mastercycler® X50s,
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these are the most widely used thermal cyclers in the market. the second one uses a Resistive heater, miniPCR mini 16x QP-1000-16
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uses this technology. the third one uses a Resistive Heating Element and does not have any Block in which the samples are kept unlike other technologies, samples are placed in a rotor -
EP EP2687294A1
, Quintel, "Rotor for a thermal cycler and thermal cycler", published 2022-01-22
, Rotor-Gene Q MDx 5plex HRM (CA)
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uses this technology.
