microtiter plate PCR

[jmv at canctr.mc.duke.edu]

In article <9304301126.AA19072 at geneman.wustl.edu>, rick at GENEMAN.WUSTL.EDU (Rick Wilson) writes:
>
>In response to several postings concerning PCR in microtiter plates:
>
>There are at least two very good thermal cyclers which allow PCR to be
>performed in microtiter plate format without the requirement for a
>mineral oil overlay.  These are the Perkin-Elmer 9600 (which we have
>used and are quite happy with) and a new instrument from MJ Research
>(we have not used, but Eric Lander's lab has had very good results with
>this cycler).  The PE cycler goes for around $10K (U.S.) and the MJR
>cycler goes for about $5.5K.
>
Our lab has done microtiter-PCRs for a couple of years and can add several
options to this list: Techne MW-2 (~$5K), Stratagene SCS-96 (~$6K), Hybaid
OmniGene (~$4K for main unit, ~$10K with additional satellite which allows
PCRing 3 plates simultaneously; conical wells can take 0.5 ul tubes or
Techne or Hybaid (conical well) plates). Price estimates are low (we had
an intro model of the latter machine).

Advantages of the u-titer plates are easier cycle-sequencing or PCR
reactions of a huge lot of samples, faster cycling times, and easy storage. 
Disadvantages include requirements of special adapters for vortexing and
centrifuging, intolerance of organic chemicals, cost ($5/plate), bad 
manufacturing (we had a Techne lot which had holes in several wells of
each plate), and if you drop one--there goes all your work.

I advocate the use of u-titer plates for any PCRing done in bulk.
czesc!
--DB
__DUMC Neurology