What is dPCR?

Digital PCR (dPCR) is a method for directly quantifying nucleic acids. Unlike real-time PCR (qPCR), dPCR partitions a sample into many individual, separate reactions; some reactions contain the target molecule (positive), and some do not (negative). Following PCR amplification, the fraction of negative reactions is used to determine the absolute number of target molecules in the sample, without the need for standards or endogenous controls. dPCR is commonly used for applications such as rare sequence detection, copy number variation analysis, and accurate gene expression quantification.