Researchers want to develop viral detection tests that don’t depend on the polymerase chain reaction. PCR amplifies nucleic acids nicely, yet it requires equipment that isn’t always handy, especially in developing nations. A mobile test that doesn’t depend on laboratory access would be better. One of the most promising alternatives to PCR is recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA), which amplifies DNA in less than 15 minutes. Unfortunately, the reaction doesn’t work in whole blood. Now bioengineers have developed a simple pretreatment step that isolates viral DNA from blood samples, moving an RPA-based test closer to being practical (Anal. Chem. 2015, DOI: 10.1021/ac504365v).
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