We know molecular biologists spent a lot of time setting up their qPCR protocols and aren’t about to change the way they do things. We also know they are technically savvy and like keeping up with the recent advances, so we prepared this brief update about what’s new in the world of qPCR.
Molecular biologists know that in qPCR, you generally have a choice between the dye-based (e.g. SYBR® Green) protocols and the hydrolysis (e.g. TaqMan® MGB) probes. Most researchers have a general impression that it takes a good amount of expertise to set up good qPCR assays with a dye-based approach and that, in the hands of an expert, a SYBR® Green approach is the only way to have truly quantitative PCR. The hydrolysis probe-based approach is thought to be more end-user friendly and will yield reasonably trustworthy results even if you don’t have the world’s expert on qPCR working in your lab and is also the best for multiplexing. The thing that both qPCR methods have in common is that users are generally fairly loyal to their technique, so people tend to have ignored the innovations that have occurred in the field of qPCR over the past several years. Here, we’ll try to bring you a brief history of the past few years of qPCR innovation.
