Multiplexing Method for Significantly Increasing the Bandwidth of qPCR Instrumentation

The quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) is an essential method for identifying nucleic acids, with broad use in clinical and research settings for identifying infectious agents, finding genetic mutations, and monitoring gene regulation. While current qPCR instrumentation provides an exceptionally sensitive measurement of 6 or fewer nucleic acid targets, advances in precision medicine and our understanding of complex biology are highlighting the need to simultaneously measure 10 to 20 targets. To address this gap, we demonstrate a new method which increases the multiplexing capability of existing qPCR instruments by 3x to 5x using existing qPCR hardware and chemistry.