Varian's new package offers higher thermal melt speed and accuracy
Varian has launched Fluorescence BioMelt, a turnkey, application-specific package for studying the thermal characteristics of DNA and proteins. Innovations in the system's sample handling and software significantly increase the speed and accuracy of thermal melt applications. The unique multi-cell electronic heat pump, or peltier, accessory is said to provide a high degree of temperature accuracy and precision required for measuring multiple samples, while the dedicated software allows higher throughput and, the company claims, unmatched measurement accuracy and excellent repeatability for studies in genomics and molecular biology research.
The thermal melt process involves the repeated denaturing/renaturing of DNA which can then be used to determine amino acid base pairs AT and GC (adenine-thymine and guanine-cytosine) content in double-stranded DNA, an important step when investigating drug-DNA interaction.