Qiagen Gmbh

Qiagen Gmbh Max-volmer-strasse 4

Dirk L&ouml;ffert

Jie Kang

Christian Korfhage

Andreas Missel

Kerstin Steinert

Joachim Ribbe

Igor Ivanov

Novel compositions and methods useful for the generation of nucleic acids from a ribonucleic acid template and further nucleic acid replication are disclosed. It is shown that the generation and amplification of nucleic acids by methods that utilize two or more different polymerases, such as reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), are dramatically more sensitive and efficient in the presence of a homopolymeric nucleic acid. Homopolymeric nucleic acids have been found to reduce or negate the inhibitory effect reverse transcriptases have on DNA polymerase activity. It is demonstrated that this inhibition-relieving effect of homopolymeric nucleic acids is general in nature; independent of the chemical species of homopolymer used, or the chemical composition of the polymerization reaction mixture.

Generation and amplification of nucleic acids from ribonucleic acids

A method for the amplification of a target nucleic acid is disclosed comprising the steps of reacting a nucleic acid with an amplification reaction mixture and a modified thermostable enzyme, wherein said modified thermostable polymerase is prepared by a reaction of a mixture of a thermostable polymerase and a chemical modifying reagent. The chemical modification reagent is an aldehyde, preferably formaldehyde. Essentially complete inactivation of the enzyme at ambient temperatures is achieved, with recovery of enzymatic activity at temperatures above 50&deg; C.

Method for reversible modification of thermostable enzymes

Growing community of inventors

Düsseldorf, Germany

Dirk Löffert

Growing community of inventors

Düsseldorf, Germany

Dirk L&ouml;ffert

Dirk Löffert