OpenPCR
Posted in Hardware
Thermocyclers/PCR machines are really simple, but still expensive. To offer a less expensive, do-it-yourself option, these two guys are engineering an open source alternative. In addition to being a decent PCR machine, (“16 reaction wells, a heated lid, a ramp rate of 2 C/s”) it has some nice features (Arduino-controlled, and it “can tweet or text you when it’s done”).
http://openpcr.org/
They’re using Kickstarter to help organize their donation-based project. The duo explain their project in a video. link
[…] this week, there is an Open Science Summit in Berkeley. The schedule includes Josh Perfetto from the OpenPCR group I’ve mentioned before, Martha Bagnell from The Third Reviewer (a free-for-all version of F1000 which is much more […]
[…] There’s already a lot of homebrew, custom hardware in science. But there are also a lot of duplicated efforts. The hobbyist community is already putting together ad hoc mechanisms to support and guide collaborative engineering efforts (e.g., Arduino and Adafruit). Labrigger wants to foster the same ideas among the scientific community (e.g., OpenEEG and OpenPCR). […]
[…] on OpenPCR: This similar effort is making progress as well. Their funding round was wildly successful, […]
[…] are videos from the talks at the Open Science Summit online now. The topics include the OpenPCR and Otyp projects, open source drug discovery, the Third Reviewer project, and more. […]
[…] a year ago, we covered the OpenPCR project. Following their successful Kickstarter campaign, which netted twice their funding goal, […]