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quasa

Super Selective Mastermix

quasa® is a piece of intellectual property owned by PrimerDesign.  The invention is patent pending and is available under flexible licencing terms.

quasa® is a super selective mastermix that can increase the specificity of allele specific PCR upto 100-fold. This can transform the sensitivity of any allele specific PCR assay.  Quantification of mutant variants in a back ground of wild-type template in a ratio of 1:1000 (0.1%) is simple with basic allele specific PCR (ARMS) and even greater sensitivity can be achieved with more advanced priming chemistries.

R&D solutions for you

 The invention

Mispriming during allele specific PCR is the number one limitation of the technique.  The inventors of quasa have identified a class of compounds that when added to qPCR mastermix result in dramatically improved stringency during allele specific priming.  

Standard qPCR MasterMix.  BRAFV600E allele specific PCR.  Mis-priming occurs on wild type template at around cycle 32 (Light blue traces).  Thus the window of specificity is around 18 Ct values.

 Standard qPCR MasterMix with quasa additive®Mispriming occurs on wild type template at around cycle 46 (Light blue traces).  Thus the window of specificity is around 25 Ct values.  This represents >100 fold increase in specificity in the assay

Clinically tested

quasa®  has been validated in a peer reviewed study centered around residual diseases monitoring in Hairy Cell Leukemia (BRAF V600E).  The lead clinician concluded the study by saying:

“We propose that molecular testing for BRAF-V600E by quasa® of peripheral blood extracted DNA should become the gold standard method for assessing treatment response and for relapse surveillance in HCL” 

Read the full article here: Haematological Oncology

Test the invention for yourself

If you wish to test quasa with your own assays then please contact us to request a sample

Alternatively we have launched a range of RUO kits based around quasa to demonstrate the power of the invention.

 

For more details please email enquiries@primerdesign.co.uk, or telephone: 44 (0) 23 8074 8830.