My Fascination with Science - PCR Tests - 1. Introduction

I missed out on learning a lot of things when I was a grad student, though opportunities existed, for two primary reasons.

• It was extremely hard to be living away in a country that is so different from where I had lived before and away from my family and I was unable to concentrate on studies.
• When I could concentrate, I wanted to devote all my time to learn everything that was there to learn about the work in the research group I wanted to work. I knew exactly who I wanted to work with, so unlike other grad students, I did not do any rotation, wait for the completion of course work etc.

Though my research at the tail end of my graduate studies involved computer simulation of small fragments of DNA and then as a postdoc larger systems of DNA and proteins, my contribution was more. on the compuational aspects, data management and analysis and visualization. Whereas I had basic understanding of structures and chemistry, it was not as deep as I would have liked it to be.

But my fascination about molecular biology never left me and though I was not reading published scientific work in peer reviewed journals, I was still reading about new discoveries or watching documentaries etc with keen interest. 

Then, I decided to take the course called Introduction to Biology - The Secret of Life on edX during the Fall of 2013. It was taught by a group led by Eric Lander, Founding Director of the Broad Institute; Professor of Biology at MIT. He is currently a Presidential Science Advisor and Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy for the Biden administration. This was a fantastic experience and I thoroughly enjoyed.

I was not engaged and in fact I hated a similar course that I had to take as a grad students, primarily because of bad teaching. But Eric is a terrific teacher and the entire course was so engaging and I was so excited. I would even tell my wife not to accept any social engagements on weekends when quizzes were due or exams were scheduled. I passed with flying colors :)

I took courses in several other areas such as Quantum Computing, but over time, I could not sustain the time and effort it needed. Roll forward to 2019... COVID struck and we started hearing about PCR tests and though by this time I had some understanding of it, if someone asked me to explain in detail and how it is useful in detecting COVID viruses, I would have struggled.

So, I invested time to try to understand this at a level of depth that I needed to. What follows in the following posts is my personal understanding of how this works bassed on several videos I have watched and several explanations I have read on the web. I will spare you a comprehensive list. Here are a couple that I found to be at the right level of detail:

• Understanding PCR - Mark Temple 
• PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) - Amoeba Sisters
• Polymerase chain reaction (PCR)

If you are an expert in this area and feel that you can add a comment to help simplify this and help readers who are not as well versed in the science behind this, please do.