Researchers say an Abbott-owned technology - ligase chain reaction - may turn out to be comparable to PCR in productivity and ease of use.

The ligase chain reaction (LCR) is a method of DNA amplification.

It can be formed using various methods including polymerase chain reactions (PCR), ligase chain reactions (LCR), or natural gene duplication.

To date, several methods for gene synthesis have been described, such as the ligation of phosphorylated overlapping oligonucleotides, the Fok I method and a modified form of ligase chain reaction for gene synthesis.