PCR/RT-PCR beads - (May/05/2010 )

Hello everyone,

Is anyone able to point me towards any resources containing information on the production of PCR beads? I would like to better understand how they are made in hopes of coming up with my own in-house protocol. The main points would be non-inhibiting stabilizers and the process to freeze-dry the reagents into nice little balls rather than an amorphous crust in the bottom of a tube.

thanks

I'd recommend looking carefully at the patent literature. Check some bead suppliers and look at the patents they cite. Then look them up on patentlens.org to download full text versions. The magic ingredient in most freeze dried enzyme preparations is trehalose.

Yeah good advice. I had actually started to do that after making my post. I was hoping maybe somebody had an obscure publication in mind on the subject since information seems to be very limited. Unfortunately I have found nothing so far, and I've spent a decent amonut of time in my search.

Thanks.