Digital PCR (dPCR) is a quantitative PCR method, which offers the capacity of measuring the amount of DNA or RNA sensitively and accurately present in a sample. In order to measure the number of molecules in a sample with high precision, the sample is divided into a large number of partitions for reactions, which are analyzed separately. Some of these reactions contain the target molecule (positive) while others do not (negative). Thus, digital PCR provides an accurate and sensitive method to detect and count individual nucleic acid molecules, enabling nucleic acid quantification with superior accuracy, precision, and relative sensitivity.

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The digital PCR system can be incredibly useful in applications of copy number variation, rare sequence detection, gene expression analysis, miRNA analysis, next-generation sequencing sample quantification, quantitation of low abundant genes or small differences, and rare event detection, such as cancer gene mutations. As absolute concentrations are determined, data can be easily interpreted and compared across different samples and experiments, especially in a clinical setting. Meanwhile, digital PCR is a simple and reproducible method that does not rely on a calibration curve for sample target quantification. Therefore no reference standards or endogenous controls are needed.

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