The team reconstructed the device’s chip loading unit to incorporate a controllable thermoelectric heating module, and to integrate a hybridization chamber3. “The 37-40°C temperature at which RPA operates is ideal for flow-through microarrays,” Dr Seidel points out. “This is a key feature of RPA that allows us to carry out on-chip amplification. The higher temperatures required by other isothermal amplification techniques can cause water in the chip to evaporate, which will ruin the experiment or destroy the microarray. RPA is the most promising method that we know for working directly on DNA microarrays.”