OpenPCR - open source biotech on your desktop
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OpenPCR - open source biotech on your desktop
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Re: OpenPCR - open source biotech on your desktop
#2For those unfamiliar with a PCR box (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCR), think of it as a photocopier for DNA--by creating copies, the DNA can be visualized through other tools like a gel box (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gel_electrophoresis). I saw Tito and Josh's prototype at Maker Faire and it was truly impressive. Please support them if you can!
Re: OpenPCR - open source biotech on your desktop
#3I love this idea. Interestingly, they reference Gates and how cheap computers helped him. All those guys, Gates included, started out working on mainframes and minis that they stole time from in University labs.
Probably that's what Gates-of-2030 is doing right now; making glowing mice in the basement of the University of Minnesota, or somewhere similar.
Re: OpenPCR - open source biotech on your desktop
#4I am completely behind the spirit of this idea, but I wish they would openly address the cost of running PCR reactions which take enzymes, nucleotides, specific phosphate buffers in or to complete. All of these things cost as do the methods to analyze your final PCR products.
I assume this is all covered under their mentioning 'kits', but these accessory components can rapidly become more expensive than the instrument itself.
Re: OpenPCR - open source biotech on your desktop
#5I am completely behind the spirit of this idea, but I wish they would openly address the cost of running PCR reactions which take enzymes, nucleotides, specific phosphate buffers in or to complete. All of these things cost as do the methods to analyze your final PCR products. I assume this is all covered under their mentioning 'kits', but these accessory components can rapidly become more expensive than the instrumen…
Excluding primers, the cost of those is about $0.8 - $2 per reaction, depending on how you do things.
Provided you have a PCR machine, a small centrifuge and an apparatus to run DNA gels an experiment like the one they are mentioning (finding out the kind of tree you have in the backyard) would cost you something like $50-$100 if you really know what you are doing. Much more if you are not a pro.
Re: OpenPCR - open source biotech on your desktop
#6You don't even need a PCR machine. All you really need are three water baths at the appropriate temperatures!
Re: OpenPCR - open source biotech on your desktop
#7I am completely behind the spirit of this idea, but I wish they would openly address the cost of running PCR reactions which take enzymes, nucleotides, specific phosphate buffers in or to complete. All of these things cost as do the methods to analyze your final PCR products. I assume this is all covered under their mentioning 'kits', but these accessory components can rapidly become more expensive than the instrumen…
This is Josh - one of the people behind the OpenPCR project. I agree with you that reagents can be a huge amount of the cost.
Part of this depends on the quantity of reactions you're doing. Taking the DNA barcoding of trees example we gave, if you're doing hundreds of reactions the cost can already be quite low as crocowhile pointed out. If you're just learning or doing a few reactions, here's where a kit containing small quantities of the needed reagents and educational information can be more cost effective.
The other part has to do with the exact reagents you need. Obviously if you can use an off the shelf master mix you'll pay much less than if you need to purchase a specialized enzyme and specific reaction buffer. There are cases where that is needed, but there's also cases where people purchase reagents more expensive than what they need, simply because they just want their reaction to work, they've found one way to make it work, and they'd rather spend more time on their project rather than finding the more cost effective ways to make it work.
Here there's a lot of opportunity for software or software coupled with hardware to find the most cost effective way to do a reaction and make it work better. For example, a PCR machine networked with a UV spec and some software could quantify template DNA, present recommendations on enzymes, calculate the best reaction parameters accurately, and tell the user exactly what quantities to add of primers/enzyme/buffer/water. Many users of PCR are not necessarily experts at PCR, so there's some opportunity to help people get better results while saving time and money.
We're thinking about these larger problems, but focusing on getting an accurate and reliable PCR machine working first. Once we have that, we'll have the foundation to pursue these other areas.
Re: OpenPCR - open source biotech on your desktop
#8You don't even need a PCR machine. All you really need are three water baths at the appropriate temperatures!
You kids don't know how good you have it. Why back in my day...
Re: OpenPCR - open source biotech on your desktop
#9You don't even need a PCR machine. All you really need are three water baths at the appropriate temperatures!
You kids don't know how good you have it. Why back in my day...
What, back in your day you didn't even have water baths or accurate temperature measurement?
:)
(tongue-in-cheek)
Re: OpenPCR - open source biotech on your desktop
#10While this sounds like a fun project, if you want a cheap PCR machine, why not buy a used one for a few hundred bucks?
Getting molecular biology to work is going to be hard enough without trying to reinvent the wheel and re-do the relatively uninteresting, but highly optimized engineering that has gone into these machines over the last 20 years.