Evaluation of the LightCycler® 1536 Instrument for high-throughput quantitative real-time PCR

Quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) is a frequently used, sensitive and accurate method to study gene expression profiles. However, its throughput was so far limited for routine laboratories to 384 reactions per run based on the limitations of the available instruments. Recently, the LightCycler® 1536 Instrument was launched providing a high-throughput solution for qPCR with the analysis of 1536 reactions in approximately 45 min. We assessed the accuracy and sensitivity of this novel technology for the analysis of gene expression profiles in combination with the Innovadyne™ Nanodrop™ Express pipetting robot. We compared expression profiles obtained for 42 genes in 71 samples between the Universal ProbeLibrary and the LightCycler® 1536 Instrument and SYBR Green I and the ABI PRISM 7900HT system. We found that the results were highly reproducible between both systems. Beside the higher throughput, the advantage of the LightCycler® 1536 Instrument was the reduced consumption of reagents and sample material.