Why didn’t Theranos work? (and could it have ever worked?)

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I’ve heard of PCR before (polymerase chain reaction) where more copies of a DNA sample can be rapidly made. If the problem was that the quantity of blood that Theranos uses is too small, why wasn’t PCR used/ (if it was) why didn’t it work?

Also if I’m completely misunderstanding PCR, if someone could for that too, I’d appreciate it, thank you!

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31 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

i don’t really know all the promises of theranos. But i can remember they practically wanted a chip in the skin to do the same as a high grade laboratory which is simply not feasable.

About pcr, i worked with pcr and not enough material for pcr is nearly impossible you can copy tinyest amount of DNA. But you need a quite sophisticated lab with machines which are not really that small. In most cases a heating module, a spectrometer and some way to filter out the stuff which isn’t DNA. But checking for medical imbalances is more then just looking at DNA. And we are far from getting a medicinal laboratory in the size of a chip

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I’ve heard of PCR before (polymerase chain reaction) where more copies of a DNA sample can be rapidly made. If the problem was that the quantity of blood that Theranos uses is too small, why wasn’t PCR used/ (if it was) why didn’t it work?

Also if I’m completely misunderstanding PCR, if someone could for that too, I’d appreciate it, thank you!

In: 148

31 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

i don’t really know all the promises of theranos. But i can remember they practically wanted a chip in the skin to do the same as a high grade laboratory which is simply not feasable.

About pcr, i worked with pcr and not enough material for pcr is nearly impossible you can copy tinyest amount of DNA. But you need a quite sophisticated lab with machines which are not really that small. In most cases a heating module, a spectrometer and some way to filter out the stuff which isn’t DNA. But checking for medical imbalances is more then just looking at DNA. And we are far from getting a medicinal laboratory in the size of a chip

You are viewing 1 out of 31 answers, click here to view all answers.