The COVID-19 has made nucleic acid testing a daily necessity for people. What has happened to nucleic acid testing from a cotton swab to a paper report?
After signing for the samples, the laboratory staff should disassemble the samples one by one and enter the information into the system.
It is worth noting that because nucleic acid detection is an extremely sensitive and precise experiment with certain risks, all nucleic acid detection laboratories have special environmental requirements, so they cannot be detected casually on the spot.
Before detection, the nucleic acid in the sample needs to be extracted and then amplified. "The extraction area of nucleic acid and the amplification area of nucleic acid are polluted areas, so these areas are negative pressure." Sunxuemin, head of Jinan aidikang clinical laboratory, said that the nucleic acid extraction area has the largest degree of pollution, and the negative pressure of the whole area is also the largest, so as to ensure the Non-Proliferation of pollutants in the nucleic acid extraction area.
So, what is amplification?
Next, you need to configure reagents in a completely zero polluted environment, and then "add samples".
It is worth noting that only "amplification" requires 45 cycles, "Because DNA and RNA are double stranded, we need to open this chain and then replicate. When one chain is opened and then replicated, it becomes two chains, and when two chains are opened and then replicated, it becomes eight chains, and so on. If there is a detection signal, it is getting stronger and stronger. If not, 45 cycles of amplification is also 0. 45 cycles of amplification is equivalent to the 45th power of 2." With such a large quantity base, we can detect whether it is positive or negative.
However, the detection process is not over. Next, we have to add various negative controls, positive controls, quality control, normal saline controls, etc. to monitor the quality of the whole process of this experiment and ensure the reliability and accuracy of the test results.