Reaction tube for performing isothermal polymerase chain reaction therein

Inventors

Su, Chen • TENG, Ping-Hua

Assignees

Genereach Biotechnology Corp

Abstract

A reaction tube for performing isothermal polymerase chain reaction therein is provided and includes an upper section, a lower capillary section, a linkage connecting the upper section and the lower capillary section, and a thermal conductor. The lower capillary section has an annealing portion, an annular heating groove, and a close end. The annealing portion is connected with the linkage, and the annular heating groove is connected with the annealing portion. The close end is connected with the annular heating groove. The thermal conductor tightly embraces the annular heating groove of the lower capillary section for conducting heat. Accordingly, a heat generated from the heating source will conduct to the annular heating groove of the lower capillary section of the reaction tube, a temperature gradient along the reaction tube is then provided in order to perform a thermal convection, thereby performing the isothermal polymerase chain reaction in the reaction tube.

Core Innovation

The invention provides a reaction tube architecture for an isothermal polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The reaction tube includes an upper section for receiving a reagent and a lower capillary section for performing an isothermal polymerase chain reaction therein, with an annealing portion and an annular heating groove connected with the annealing portion and located in a bottom part of the lower capillary section.

The annealing portion has an outer diameter greater than an outer diameter of the annular heating groove, and a closed end is connected with the annular heating groove. A linkage connects the upper section and the lower capillary section, and the annealing portion is connected with the linkage. The tube further includes a thermal conductor tightly embracing the annular heating groove for conducting heat from a heating source, and the thermal conductor is received by the annular heating groove.

The heat generated from the heating source is evenly conducted to the annular heating groove of the lower capillary section of the reaction tube, and the lower capillary section is only heated by the heat received at the annular heating groove. A vertical temperature gradient is provided, involving a reduction of temperature from the bottom part of the lower capillary section to a top part of the lower capillary section, and this temperature gradient is used to perform thermal convection within the PCR sample.

The thermal convection results in three events occurring repeatedly in different regions of a PCR sample, namely denaturation, annealing and extension, and the isothermal polymerase chain reaction is performed in the lower capillary section.

Claims Coverage

The document includes one independent claim. Its inventive features are directed to a reaction tube geometry and heat-transfer arrangement that creates a vertical temperature gradient and drives thermal convection to repeatedly produce denaturation, annealing, and extension events in different regions of a PCR sample.

Overall claim coverage centers on the combination of an upper reagent-loading section with a lower capillary section containing an annealing portion and an annular heating groove, together with a thermal conductor that is received by and tightly embraces the annular heating groove. Heat is conducted evenly to the annular heating groove such that the lower capillary section is only heated by that received heat, producing a vertical temperature gradient that enables thermal convection and repeated denaturation, annealing, and extension events in different regions for isothermal PCR.

Stated Advantages

Documented Applications