Extreme PCR: A Breakthrough Innovation for Outbreaks?

The latest Ebola outbreak is the diagnostics grand challenge of the moment. Groups across the world are racing to build the “ideal test” that according to the WHO should work without laboratory infrastructure, take fewer than 3 steps, report results in under 30 min, and have minimum biosafety requirements (1). Leo Poon, head of Public Health Laboratory Sciences at the University of Hong Kong School of Public Health, who was one of the first to decode the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) virus and develop a test for H1N1 influenza, would add “affordable” to that list. “What we need in the field is something simple; and it must be cheap,” he says.What is the most radical innovation with the potential to deal with viral outbreaks? “The portable PCR machine,” Poon shares. Seven thousand miles away a pathologist in Utah may have hit on an innovation that will change PCR forever. Dr. Carl Wittwer, professor of pathology at the University of Utah Medical School, has been recognized by the inventor of PCR, Kary Mullis, as “someone who has thought about PCR in a way that very few others have” (2). Wittwer invented the LightCycler system, which was licensed to Roche with over 10 000 units placed across the world. He spoke with this journal about his latest innovation, “extreme PCR.”“Once a technology becomes established, further innovation is still possible.” says Wittwer, referring to PCR.Carl WittwerThe dependence on central laboratory testing constrains the ability for a community to deal …