Now Charles Cantor, ENG professor, Senior Research Associate Natalia Broude and graduate student Lingang Zhang (ENG '05) of ENG's Center for Advanced Biotechnology (CAB), with colleagues from Packard Instrument Company in Meriden, Conn., have devised a new PCR strategy that enables the amplification of multiple DNA targets with a simplified process that decreases the costs involved and makes the process more amenable to automation.

Traditional PCR uses two primers, synthetic DNA fragments that correspond to those that flank the target area. The CAB variant uses a single primer that is specific to the target area and another primer that is common for all targets. The common primer corresponds to adapters attached to both ends of each DNA fragment. Because the common primer is rich in two of DNA's bases, guanine and cytosine, which results in an especially strong base pair, the DNA fragments form hairpin structures, with the target DNA forming a loop. This means that only half the number of primers needs to be engineered to amplify multiple targets on a strand of DNA.

The new process not only holds the promise of more reliable amplification of multiple segments of DNA at the same time, it also is highly specific because it occurs within narrower temperature constraints than traditional PCR. In addition, Cantor and his colleagues believe their new form of multiplex PCR may prove to be effective in amplifying SNP (single nucleotide polymorphisms), genomic areas considered to be associated with inheritable diseases. SNP scoring will provide more knowledge about the hereditary aspects of these diseases, and consequently new ways of preventing or treating them.

This work was presented in the January 2, 2001, issue of The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.