Thermo Scientific ABgene Molecular Biology Solutions include PCR and qPCR reagents and a wide variety of plastic consumables such as tubes, strips, plates, Armadillo plates and storage plates.

About ABgene

We are part of Thermo Fisher Scientific, the world leader in serving science. ABgene (Advanced Biotechnologies) was founded in 1989, initially to supply molecular biology reagents and enzymes. In March of 2004, ABgene became a wholly owned subsidiary of Fisher Scientific International, Inc. In November of 2006, Fisher Scientific International, Inc. merged with Thermo Electron Corporation to become Thermo Fisher Scientific.

History
The original ABgene focus was to develop a comprehensive range of molecular biology reagents. With the addition of consumables in 1993 and later the instrumentation ABgene quickly established itself as a molecular biology solutions provider; it offered PCR and qPCR reagents, the most complete range of plastics for molecular biology and the instrumentation which supported PCR, electrophoresis and sample storage applications.

Over the past two decades ABgene’s core strength has been combining the R&D expertise in PCR chemistry with the design and engineering capabilities of the injection molded plastics and as part of the Thermo Scientific Molecular Biology business this will remain the focus.

Key Technologies & Achievements
ABgene engineered the uniform thin-walled tubes for PCR which optimized the thermal transfer and therefore maximize the yield of PCR product. To further improve PCR reaction reproducibility, PCR mastermixes were introduced to the product range.

The use of white plastics for qPCR to maximize reaction sensitivity was another ABgene innovation and taking this development a step further, a blue dye was then added into the ABsolute Blue qPCR master mixes which enabled researchers to visualize the mastermix in each well.

ABgene was one of the first companies in the mid 90s to re-configure 8-strip tubes into the 96-well plate format which has become so common in the modern laboratory and as technology has advanced and PCR reaction throughputs have increased it was the first company to design and manufacture automation compatible polypropylene PCR plates which did not distort during robotic manipulation.