LavaAmp: cheapest pocket PCR thermocycler dreamed for DIY biologists

Posted in biodiy, biohacking, biology, biotechnology, diy, DNA, geek, open science, Sci Foo, science, science hacks, SciFoo

The LavaAmp is a portable PCR thermocycler that has the potential to become the default garage biology (home biology, bioDIY, DIYbio) tool once it hits the market. Think of Apple II for personal computing or MakerBot for 3D printing.

The 1st LavaAmp prototype was shipped this week from Biodesic to Gahaga Biosciences and the process is documented and engineering details uncovered in Rob Carlson’s post.

The people behind are mainly ex SciFoo Campers and open science advocates: Guido Nunez-Mujica, Joseph Jackson, Rob Carlson, Jim Hardy and a cool engineer Rik Wehbring.

Here’s the pic of the prototype:

lavaamp-thumb-500x375In the 2007 proof-of-concept paper, entitled A Pocket-Sized Convective PCR Thermocycler, authors Nitin Agrawal, Yassin A. Hassan, and Victor M. Ugaz wrote:

Herein, we introduce an innovative thermocycling system that
harnesses natural convection phenomena to amplify DNA rapidly by the PCR in a greatly simplified format. A key element of this design is an architecture that allows the entire thermocycling process to be actuated pseudo-isothermally by simply maintaining a single heater at a constant temperature, thereby enabling a pocket-sized battery-powered device to be constructed at a cost of about US$10.

PocketThermocyclerAgrawalpic

Realizing the potential of the device and thinking about how to build a digital thermocontroller for it with the Arduino I contacted Victor Ugaz this January and was informed that they only built the proof-of-the-concept  devices testing them in the lab interested mainly in ‘understanding the physics of the thermally driven flow and its effect on the reaction’. But it was obvious to me that somebody will produce those devices for the market and make them affordable to people as it seemed to me as the familiar case of the low(est)-hanging-fruit.

So when Joseph Jackson mentioned to me his grandiose open science plans and the groups’  ‘super affordable pcr’ project I became instantly interested. As Rob Carlson writes:

The intended initial customers are hobbyists and schools.  The price point for new LavaAmps should be well underneath the several thousand dollars charged for educational thermocyclers that use heater blocks powered by peltier chips.

Published by attilacsordas

AgeCurve founder using proteomes two demystify agings two add more healthy years, ex mito-stem cell biologist, bioinformatician, Open Lifespan philosopher

108 thoughts on “LavaAmp: cheapest pocket PCR thermocycler dreamed for DIY biologists”

  2. Pingback: LavaAmp Launched Coast to Coast « Frederick County Biotech Community

  7. Medi,

    Exact price is not established. The picture (above in blog post) is our engineering prototype, which we are running amplification with now. Works fine, but still some engineering tweeks to make, especiallly with sample loading. The big challange is getting away from gels for detection (which is likely not until LavaAmp 2.0 or 3.0).

    The goal is to keep the price under $100 USD. I think we can do that, but maybe not until volume picks up to cover costs.

  20. “The goal is to keep the price under $100 USD. I think we can do that, but maybe not until volume picks up to cover costs.”

    This would be a very good entry level price. There is a huge psychological barrier that you would have to get people across, if you went over the 100 bucks.

    Under 100 is much easier, over 100 and people believe they are entering into a luxury item bracket, which your item does not fall into. Hope this helps

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  48. Hi Jim
    Looks good. $10 dollars seems good value for the pocket sized one, considering the thought and work that has gone into the initial development.

  50. Pingback: LavaAmp: cheapest pocket PCR thermocycler dreamed for DIY biologists | Plos Biology

  55. Hi Jim
    Looks good. $10 dollars seems good value for the pocket sized one, considering the thought and work that has gone into the initial development.

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  103. looks good , is there any update as to the status of the project , because , for one , i know that there’s another project ( price just a little bit bigger , about 440-500 dollars ) called OpenPCR that’s just launched commercially .

    My regards

    Peter.

  104. Hey Peter. We are still working on it. Guido is in Chile after we won $40 USD from StartUp Chile to facilitate commercialization, so we hope to have something ready by 1Q 2012. We are also very familiar with OpenPCR, but that is still based on more “traditional” PCR and will be constrained by that platform. Jim H

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