Palm PCR

[Jason Kelly]

don't know if people have seen this before, but it's news to me.
battery powered, portable PCR machine:

http://www.ahrambio.com/product.html

don't know what it costs, but presumably less then the usual big
heating block models.

jason

[Joseph Jackson]

Hey Jason, a guy from their company was actually at the biobar camp 2
weeks ago at the Institute for the Future. From what we heard they
dont actually have the thing ready quite yet and its probably going to
cost like $5,000. So not exactly the era of affordable personal pcr
yet. I however, am interested in developing a really cheap machine
for the DIY community. The university of Texas A&M announced a "10"$
machine in 2007 but never did anything with the prototype. We spoke
to them and the provisional patent actually expired so it is pretty
much fair game/public domain for anybody to come along and
manufacture.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/104545/Mini-PCR-Machine

I'm talking to investors now and we'd like input from the DIY
community about how to best establish a company to serve the needs of
users looking for this kind of super low cost solution. Basically, we
wouldn't look to make much off the machines--instead opting to build
an ongoing relationship with the community; establishing brand loyalty
and selling reagents/primers etc.

[snooch]

There's always MAKE's ~$300 homemade PCR: http://makezine.com/07/fingerprinting/
While it wouldn't be as accurate as a lab PCR, it would still get the
job done.

Joseph: Your idea sounds great, I'd love to be able to buy (cheaply) a
proper PCR.

[Joseph Jackson]

Thanks for the interest, I am really excited about the possibility of
providing a very cheap personal machine. We're just trying to gauge
the interest and get things together to start. If and when we do
this, I'd even like have a participatory design process--the machine
they made at Texas was really more of a prototype not a fully ready
commercial product. There is a bit to be done if it is to have real
time capability. I am a huge proponent of open source and open
design. I'll keep you informed of our plans.