Patent ID: 8198051

Claim:
A method for determining an effective cycle rate for amplifying a nucleic acid in a specimen via a polymerase chain reaction procedure, the method comprising the steps of: providing a thermocycler having a temperature controlled block that is sub-divided into a plurality of segments, and a control unit for controlling the temperature of each segment separately within the controlled block; placing a portion of the specimen into at least two different segments, said at least two different segments being adjacent to at least one other segment into which a portion of the specimen has been placed; simultaneously performing the polymerase chain reaction procedure on the portion of the specimen in each of the at least two different segments during which the control unit drives each of the at least two different segments through a predetermined number of temperature cycles, each temperature cycle including a period of time when the segment is maintained at a denaturing temperature followed by a period of time when the segment is maintained at an annealing temperature that is below the denaturing temperature followed by a period of time when the segment is maintained at an elongation temperature that is intermediate of the denaturing temperature and the annealing temperature; repeating the temperature cycle in each of the at least two different segments a different number of times as compared to the other segment resulting in a different cycle rate for each of the at least two different segments measured as the number of temperature cycles performed for each segment; using the control unit to drive each segment to a cooling temperature that is below the annealing temperature upon completion of the predetermined number of temperature cycles for each segment, the cooling temperature preserving the portions against further heat affects and for subsequent analysis, wherein at least one segment is driven to the cooling temperature at a time when the other of the at least two different segments is repeating the temperature cycle; and analyzing the portions to determine which cycle rate was most effective at amplifying the nucleic acid in the specimen.