How it Works: Real Time PCR Brendan Maher The instrumentation is basic: a thermal cycler for amplification, a light source for excitation of fluorescent probes (see chemistries below), a camera for ...

If you wake up one morning with a fever, shortness of breath and a cough — in other words, symptoms of the new coronavirus — you'll likely wonder how you can get tested for it and what that entails.

A polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test detects genetic material from a pathogen or abnormal cell sample. Ways of collecting samples include a nasal swab, a saliva swab, or taking a sample of blood.

Since its invention in the 1980s, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) opened the door for applications such as genetic engineering, genotyping, and sequencing, and has become a fundamental part of ...