Using PCRCalc

This guide assume you know what a Polimerase Chain Reaction (PCR) is, and will recognize the terms presented by the application. It is not intended to teach you PCR principles and application.

PCRCalc is a Graphical User Interface (GUI), when you execute it, a single window will be presented to you with all data needed to calculate a PCR Mixture of a given number of reactions. PCRCalc accompanies a small thermocycler minimum run time calculator that is not directly related to the main calculator and do not have to be used if not needed.

The fist column presents reagents stock values, changes to these values are disabled initially but can be enabled by checking the Edit stock values check button. Then you will be able to alter these values according to you stock concentrations. If you want a more permanent change, alter the default values imported from stock.json file in the folder presets installed along with PCRCalc, change this file values as you wish, but be careful to not corrupt the file.

The second column shows PCR concentration values and can be edited by default, if you want to lock these values, uncheck the Edit PCR values check button. The defaut values are hard coded, an will always be presented on application statup. Alter them according to your needs.

Once stock and PCR concentrations are set, just define the reaction number and volume at the bottom part of the third column and click the View Mix button.

This window will pop up:

It tells you how much of your stock solutions is needed to achieve the desired PCR concentrations in the mix you defined. Values that equal zero are ommited, once they do not contribute to the final mix. The DNA amount values are presented for each reaction, not for the mix, once normally you would apply different DNA templates to each reaction.

At this point you may take note of your mix values and close the window, or click the Save button and create a PDF file in a folder of your choice with the mix data.

If you enter values that are not possible to be acheived in the mix (e.g.: 110% Glycerol in PCR concentrations) a warning message will pop up and you will have to correct the values to continue.

Division by zero will also pop up a warning, and will obviously not be calculated (e.g: Define 0% Glycerol stock concentration and 10% Glycerol PCR concentration).

That's it, I hope this small tool helps you get things done. 😃 I'm not a professional programmer and quite new to Python, so my code is probably not the most clean and optimal you may found, but it seems to do the job. Any complains or suggestions, please feel free to get in touch using github tools for such.