The Real Cost of Multiplex

Real Cost of Multiplex

This conversation is consistent with our feedback from customers throughout the years.   Building a successful multiplex is hard, expensive and time-consuming.  Often times we work with customers after they’ve already tried “going it alone”.  We unfortunately are not surprised when they decide to engage the help of DNA Software only after some difficult or challenging circumstances, and we hear “that approach didn’t work” or “that team member is no longer with us” quite often.

We recently spoke with a customer who was sharing with us the trials and tribulations of developing a multiplex PCR assay with multiple experimental iterations, at least a half dozen.  When we starting asking clarifying questions, and we were surprised to learn the answers.   We asked, “how long have you been working on this multiplex”?  Our customer replied, “well this particular assay has been approximately six months but some similar assays have taken over a year.”  When we asked “how many people do you have dedicated to this project”, we discovered that these projects typically require up to 3 FTE and 6-12 months is a common time requirement.  We quickly calculated the real cost at one quarter to one half million dollars without the certainty of success.

We acknowledge that free PCR design software works in some instances for easy and non-trivial design, but that is not what our ideal customer looks like.  Our ideal customer understands the challenges of design and they understand that they themselves lack the necessary expertise to execute a large scale multiplex design themselves. Our customers have often become aware that they need better tools and expertise to solve their most challenging multiplexes and that they don’t have a “resident thermodynamics expert” on staff.  Thankfully, our software will solve these challenging problems for you.  DNA Software will work with you to thoroughly understand the nuances of your system and deliver a customized solution that creates success in your bottom line.