Introduction to the DRIFTCON system

Quality control and certification have become important issues in the contemporary laboratory. For some disciplines, a good standardisation of the used procedures has always been obvious, but for others it was historically not that evident. Molecular biology has always been an area where the methodologies were highly preparative and recipe-wise, with less awareness for quality control aspects. Recently however, driven by the increasing amount of diagnostic applications, the consciousness that a good certification is a necessity has increased.

PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) is the key reaction in the field of molecular biology. Whether the technique is applied for research, or for the numerous diagnostic purposes (where decisions must be made based on the outcome of the reaction), PCR is leading the way. Nevertheless, it remains unclear what the influence is of the used PCR instruments, the disposable and the reagents on the final results. Especially the effect of temperature performance of a thermal cycler turns out to be substantial. Knowing that many different brands and types of instruments are available on this growing marketplace, technically differing greatly, we think that a good quality control procedure needs to be established.

Many years ago already CYCLERtest started off with its research into PCR-related temperature measurements, and the influence of temperature deviations on the end-results of the PCR reaction. In 1998 the MTAS service was introduced at the Benelux market place, as a means for validation and certification of the temperature performance of PCR apparatus. In the beginning of 2002 the system was presented worldwide. Meanwhile, CYCLERtest is proud to call itself world leader in the field of “thermal performance testing”. It is even noticeable that the expertise that was gained with the MTAS service, directs several international developments concerning accreditation and certification of laboratories.

On this website the next step in the quality control trajectory is introduced: DRIFTCON, a personal temperature drift monitoring system for thermal cyclers. DRIFTCON is, next to the MTAS certification, the ideal tool to serve as a periodic validation instrument for your PCR tests. It offers a convenient and easy means to check if your test is still within the determined and accepted borders.