week 8 blog reflection
This week we talked about LAMP (loo=mediated isothermal amplification). Prior to this week I had not heard of LAMP before and was surpised to find out that it was 15 years old. The biggest difference between LAMP and regular pcr is mainly concerning the primers. The LAMP method utilizes primers in such a way as to create amplicons that have a ‘dumb-bell’ shape, with loops at both ends. It was interesting that LAMP can perform at a single temperature, and I can see the advantage in such a system, not having to rely on expensive complicated machines that, in a busy lab, might need scheduling. I also like the impressive yield counts. The primer preparation seems a lot more complicated, however this week’s discussion makes me wonder how we can use LAMP in the Maine eDNA program.