Our re-design is based upon the Open PCR system originally designed by Josh Perfetto and Tito Jankowski.
System Design
Key Features
The first picture shows the heating block that is in use in the current PCR machine. It is limited in that it can only contain 16 test tubes at any given time. Our redesign calls for doubling the amount of test tube holders by increasing the size of the heating block. The picture below is that of the current cooling system. Because our redesign is going the be running PCR on twice as many samples, an increase in the cooling power needs to occur in order to sufficiently cool the larger number of samples. This is done by increasing the size of the cooling system and therefore increasing its power.
Instructions
1) Remove the current heating block and cooling system from the PCR machine.
2) Replace removed items with the larger heating block and larger cooling system.
3) Replace side panels with larger ones in case any of the replaced parts exceed the confines of the current PCR machine.
4) Continue to run PCR as normal.
BME 103 Fall 2012
