Development and validation of automated methods for COVID-19 PCR Master Mix preparation.

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based assays were widely deployed during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic for population-scale testing. High-throughput molecular diagnostic laboratories required a high degree of process automation to cope with huge testing demands, fast turnaround times, and quality requirements. However, process developers and optimizers often neglected the critical step of preparing a PCR Master Mix. The construction of PCR Master Mix depends on operator skill during the manual pipetting of reagents. Manual procedures introduce variation, inconsistency, wastage, and potentially risks data integrity. To address this, we developed a liquid-handler-based solution for automated, traceable, and compliant PCR Master Mix preparation. Here, we show that a fully automated PCR Master Mix protocol can replace manual pipetting, even in a diagnostic environment, without affecting accuracy or precision. Ultimately, this method eliminated operator-induced wastage and improved the consistency of the quality of results.

Biomolecular insights into North African-related ancestry, mobility and diet in eleventh-century Al-Andalus.

Historical records document medieval immigration from North Africa to Iberia to create Islamic al-Andalus. Here, we present a low-coverage genome of an eleventh century CE man buried in an Islamic necropolis in Segorbe, near Valencia, Spain. Uniparental lineages indicate North African ancestry, but at the autosomal level he displays a mosaic of North African and European-like ancestries, distinct from any present-day population. Altogether, the genome-wide evidence, stable isotope results and the age of the burial indicate that his ancestry was ultimately a result of admixture between recently arrived Amazigh people (Berbers) and the population inhabiting the Peninsula prior to the Islamic conquest. We detect differences between our sample and a previously published group of contemporary individuals from Valencia, exemplifying how detailed, small-scale aDNA studies can illuminate fine-grained regional and temporal differences. His genome demonstrates how ancient DNA studies can capture portraits of past genetic variation that have been erased by later demographic shifts-in this case, most likely the seventeenth century CE expulsion of formerly Islamic communities as tolerance dissipated following the Reconquista by the Catholic kingdoms of the north.