Nanoliter High-Throughput PCR for DNA and RNA Profiling

The increasing emphasis in life science research on utilization of genetic and genomic information underlies the need for high-throughput technologies capable of analyzing the expression of multiple genes or the presence of informative single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in large-scale, population-based applications. Human disease research, disease diagnosis, personalized therapeutics, environmental monitoring, blood testing, and identification of genetic traits impacting agricultural practices, both in terms of food quality and production efficiency, are a few areas where such systems are in demand. This has stimulated the need for PCR technologies that preserves the intrinsic analytical benefits of PCR yet enables higher throughputs without increasing the time to answer, labor and reagent expenses and workflow complexity. An example of such a system based on a high-density array of nanoliter PCR assays is described here. Functionally equivalent to a microtiter plate, the nanoplate system makes possible up to 3,072 simultaneous end-point or real-time PCR measurements in a device, the size of a standard microscope slide. Methods for SNP genotyping with end-point TaqMan PCR assays and quantitative measurement of gene expression with SYBR Green I real-time PCR are outlined and illustrative data showing system performance is provided.