PCR Laboratory Construction Project

The wide application of PCR technology has led to increasing attention being paid to the design and construction of PCR laboratories.
A typical PCR laboratory consists of four areas: the reagent reserve area, the sample preparation area, the amplification area, and the product analysis area. The reagent reserve area mainly performs the tasks of storing, preparing, and packaging reagents and the main reaction mixture. The air pressure in this area should be maintained at a positive pressure relative to the outside. The reagents and materials stored and prepared in the reagent reserve area should not pass through other areas. The reagents and raw materials should be stored and prepared within this area. The equipment in this area mainly includes refrigerators, balances, mixers, low-speed centrifuges, pipettes, mobile ultraviolet lamps, etc. To ensure the safety of the laboratory personnel, the experimental bench should be arranged on both sides of the room, with the middle corridor leading directly to the corridor for easy evacuation.

The function of the specimen preparation area is to preserve the samples, extract and store the nucleic acids, add the samples to the amplification reaction tubes and measure the synthesis of DNA. The samples should be directly transported to this area and stored within it, and cannot pass through other areas. To avoid aerosol contamination, this area should maintain a negative pressure with respect to the outside. Compared with the amplification reaction mixture preparation and amplification area as well as the amplification product analysis area, this area has a positive pressure relative to the adjacent areas. The operations carried out in the specimen preparation area include biological safety cabinets, pipettes, benchtop high-speed centrifuges, benchtop low-speed centrifuges, water bath pots, refrigerators, mixers and mobile ultraviolet lamps, etc.

The function of the amplification zone is DNA amplification and the determination of amplified fragments. In this zone, the reaction mixture (from the reagent storage and preparation area) can be prepared into the reaction mixture and the prepared DNA template (from the specimen preparation area) can also be added, etc., all of which can be carried out in this area. For the control of air pressure, it is a negative pressure relative to the adjacent areas to avoid the leakage of aerosols from this area. To avoid contamination caused by aerosols, unnecessary movements within this area should be minimized. Some operations such as adding samples should be carried out in the laminar flow hood. The equipment in this area mainly includes nucleic acid amplification thermal cycling instrument, pipettes, laminar flow hoods, etc. The power supply of the thermal cycling instrument should be dedicated and equipped with a stable voltage power supply or UPS to prevent the influence of voltage fluctuations on amplification determination.

The function of the product analysis area is to analyze the amplified products. This area may use certain toxic substances that can cause genetic mutations. Special attention should be paid to the safety protection of the laboratory personnel. For the control of air flow pressure, this area is the final step of the PCR experiment. The pressure should be at its lowest, with a negative pressure compared to the adjacent areas, to prevent aerosols from leaking out of this area. To avoid contamination caused by aerosols, unnecessary movements within this area should be minimized. The equipment in this area mainly includes pipettes, electrophoresis apparatus (chambers), electrophoretic transfer apparatus, hybridization furnaces or hybridization boxes, water bath chambers, DNA sequencers, microplate readers, and washing machines, etc.