DESCRIPTION (applicant's abstract): Many PCR analyses, particularly those with rare targets or those with compromised DNA templates (such as forensic analyses), benefit from a hot start. In a normal (room temperature) start, the primers can prime at non-specific sequences,… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): A hot start is beneficial or necessary for efficiency and reliability of a large portion of PCR reactions. The most demanding PCR reactions are especially dependent on a hot start. A heat switch can be added to PCR protocols by any of several manual or built-in… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): A hot start is beneficial or necessary for efficiency and reliability of a large portion of PCR reactions. The most demanding PCR reactions are especially dependent on a hot start. A heat switch can be added to PCR protocols by any of several manual or built-in… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): We have been investigating strategies for novel methods of hot start for PCR. One such strategy involves the sequestering of a critical component of the reaction until the reaction temperature is sufficient to ensure selective annealing of PCR primers. We have… More

Detection of microbes directly in soil is difficult. The purpose of this study is to identify enzymes which will enable gene detection direclty in crude soil samples.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The success and sensitivity of DNA detection is limited in important clinical, forensic, and environmental applications due to the presence of complex biological samples, such as blood, which reduce amplification efficiency. Different pre-PCR treatments that are… More

Gene detection in soil using the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) is nearly impossible due to the inhibitory affects of the components of soil, including humic acid. Currently, the DNA must be extracted from the soil in order to perform PCR. The DNA extraction/purification step is expensive and time… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The sensitivity of gene detection in blood specimens in important clinical and forensic PCR applications is limited due to inhibitory blood substances which reduce amplification efficiency and may lead to false negative results. Different pre-PCR treatments that… More

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project proposes the improvement of real-time PCR, a DNA-based rapid-detection method, for detection of food-borne pathogens such as Salmonella. Current methods are inadequate to accurately detect pathogens in foods such as chocolate,… More

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): We propose to develop a highly simplified and improved method of detecting RNA for use in clinical tests and for scientific research by enabling the RT-PCR amplification of nucleic acids directly in whole blood, serum, plasma, and cell lysates. We propose a dual… More

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project proposes the development of novel enzymes (DNA polymerases) and other improvements for rapid detection of food-borne pathogens by DNA detection and amplification (PCR). PCR is a very fast and accurate method of pathogen detection,… More