The ARTICnetwork Primer Foundry
Free multiplex PCR primer schemes for the global research and public health community.
Supporting Open Science
The Foundry is a initiative that produces and distributes primer schemes at no cost, helping labs worldwide access the tools they need for genomic surveillance and outbreak response.
Completely Free
Primers are provided and dispatched free of charge as a donation. However, we do not cover any import or customs fees that might arise.
Open-Access Schemes
Every scheme we supply is based on an open-access primer scheme and quality-checked before dispatch.
Global Reach
We aim to ship to any destination our courier partner delivers to, covering the vast majority of countries worldwide.
Which Schemes Do We Offer?
We focus on schemes we believe will have the greatest impact on genomic surveillance and outbreak response. Currently this means the primer schemes supported and maintained as part of an ARTICnetwork work package.
If you have a scheme you would like to see made available through the Foundry, please get in touch.
How Do We Support This?
Even a small yield order for a modest primer scheme produces enough material for around 20,000 reactions at a cost of several thousand US dollars, far beyond what most labs can justify, especially for pilot studies or small sample sets.
By purchasing oligonucleotides in larger quantities and automating the repooling process (traditionally a slow, labour-intensive step that is highly prone to pipetting errors), we can accurately produce large numbers of small aliquots (500 reactions each) at nominal cost and ship them to labs around the world free of charge.