Webinar: High-precision PCR using ThermaGenix Reagents

What Does It Cover?

The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a mainstay of molecular biology and genomics that provides an efficient and rapid in vitro method for enzymatic amplification of DNA or RNA sequences from various sources. There are three unique, easy-to-use PCR additives that act at different temperatures to improve sensitivity and product yield by preventing mis-priming:

1. ThermaStop™ reagent: acts like a universal hot-start for Type A and Type B DNA polymerases
2. ThermaGo™ reagent: enhances the specificity of these same enzymes during the course of amplification
3. ThermaStop™-RT reagent: acts like a hot-start for many reverse transcriptases

Each reagent is a chemically modified oligonucleotide produced under GMP conditions and sold as a dry powder. Stable at room temperature, each reagent can simply be added to the enzyme of your choice before adding that enzyme/reagent complex to the master mix. These improvements are observed for both inexpensive Type A Taq polymerases and very expensive HiFi Type B DNA polymerases in applications such as qPCR, multiplexing, and preparation of DNA amplicons prior to next-generation sequencing (NGS).

What Will You Learn?

• General background on three ThermaGenix PCR reagents: ThermaStop™, ThermaGo™ and ThermaStop™-RT reagents
• How each reagent can be used to decrease amplification errors that result in synthesis of nonspecific products
• How the addition of these reagents improves the specificity and sensitivity of PCR reactions built using every one of at least 40 enzymes tested

Who Should Attend?

Anyone performing PCR and/or RT-PCR including multiplexing, endpoint qPCR and NGS.

Speaker Bio
Professor Lawrence Wangh Founder and CSO of ThermaGenix, Inc.
Dr. Lawrence Wangh received his undergraduate degree in biology at Brandeis University in 1968 and his Ph.D. in biochemistry from The Rockefeller University in 1973. He then went to England as a Helen Hay Whitney Fellow and worked at the Medical Research Council laboratories in Cambridge and London. In 1977, he returned to the Biology Department of Brandeis University to teach courses in developmental biology, reproductive biology, and evolution, where he established a laboratory research program in those same fields. In the course of that work he and his laboratory colleagues invented a novel method for efficient non-symmetric amplification of very small amounts of DNA. From 1997 through 2016, with approximately 10 million dollars of support from grants and biotechnology companies, he and his team invented three PCR additives: ThermaStop™, ThermaGo™, and ThermaStop™-RT, that enhance the specificity and sensitivity of both asymmetric and symmetric (standard) PCR reactions, as well as RT-PCR. In 2016 Professor Wangh launched ThermaGenix, Inc. a company dedicated to commercializing the revolutionary reagents and methods invented in his laboratory. In 2017 ThermaGenix™ and our company signed a distribution agreement to sell ThermaStop™, ThermaGo™, and ThermaStop™-RT worldwide.