Quantitative analysis has been well studied and frequently used in chemistry and biology in recent years. Although many a concept and strategy of quantitative analysis has been presented in current analytical chemistry curriculums such as the linear relationship between the absorption and concentration of analytes based on Beer's law in spectroscopy and peak area/height quantification in chromatography. However, these quantitative approaches are currently dispersed among different analytical methods, such as spectroscopy, chromatography and so on. So far, there has not been a section specifically devoted to quantitative analysis in chemistry or even biology classes. Therefore, most students still have vague and unclear ideas about quantitative analysis, sometimes lacking of awareness of <i>quantity</i> when faced with practical problems.<br/>PCR presents an alternative for demonstration of quantitative analysis because various PCR techniques are designed for different analytical purposes. Therefore, in this article, we take conventional, real-time and digital PCR as examples to introduce semi-, relative and absolute quantification to students in a section of the bioanalytical chemistry curriculum. The basic principle and theories of three PCR techniques for quantification are demonstrated and derived in detail. This will help students obtain comprehensive knowledge of quantitative analysis by studying the theoretical principles of different PCR techniques and will help them further understand the applications by comparing the characteristics of semi-, relative and absolute quantification.<br/>This tutorial report is a creative attempt to combine the teaching of chemistry with biology and present the theoretical principles in a new way, which we believe will be a helpful complement to teaching theoretical concepts in analytical chemistry and biochemistry courses.

Introducing theoretical principles of semi-, relative and absolute quantification via conventional, real-time and digital PCR to graduate and senior undergraduate students of chemistry

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

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