| Description: | Working in the confines of a ventilated hood, and wearing a blue-colored protective bio-hazard suite, this 2014 image depicts Centers for Disease Control and prevention (CDC) microbiologist Tatiana Travis, as she was in the process of preparing a real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test in order to detect drug-resistant pathogens. In her right hand she held a mechanized pipette containing a blue solution that she was pipetting into a 96-well plate, which she held in her left hand.
The real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, also known as a quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), works to amplify, as well as quantify a specific, or targeted DNA molecule. The difference between the conventional PCR test, and the real-time version, is that the detection of the targeted DNA molecule can occur during the amplification process, or in real-time, rather than formerly awaiting the end of the PCR in order perform the requisite product analysis. |
