FOSTER CITY, Calif., July 12 -- Applied Biosystems Group, an Applera Corp. business, introduced the ABI PRISM 7000 Sequence Detection System (SDS), which combines thermal cycling, fluorescence detection, and application-specific software in a single instrument. Smaller and more cost-effective than many other real-time PCR instruments, the 7000 SDS detects accumulated PCR product cycle-by-cycle, thus making quantitative results available immediately after completion of PCR, without the need for further processing or analysis. "This new SDS instrument is ideal for gene expression and pathogen detection studies, both of which are real-time, quantitative PCR applications used extensively in basic and human disease research," said Chris Grimley, product manager for the 7000 SDS. "The system's multicolor detection capability allows researchers to perform a wide variety of assays including multiplex quantitation. It also performs nonquantitative end-point assays, such as allelic discrimination (SNP detection) and plus/minus assays using an internal positive control (IPC)."