S3E22 - Simmer, don’t cycle—a molecular biologist’s guide to RPA

In this Mol Bio Minutes episode, Thermo Fisher Scientific’s Monika Jazdauskaitė dives into the versatile world of Recombinase Polymerase Amplification (RPA). Unlike PCR, RPA operates at a constant, low temperature (around 37–42°C), enabling fast, equipment-light workflows that are ideal for field diagnostics and decentralized labs. Monika explains how the method works and why RPA is emerging as a go-to technique for both DNA and RNA target detection.

She highlights RPA’s specificity, sensitivity, and robustness against common inhibitors like ethanol and heparin, critical for applications like respiratory pathogen detection or low-quality sample inputs. Plus, she shares how RPA’...