Technology Leaders in Genotyping

Welcome to 3CR Bioscience, a leading provider of innovative products and services for agriculture and life sciences. Driven by excellence and affordability, we are here to accelerate scientific progress in response to global challenges.

*New lab services* DNA Extraction, Endpoint Genotyping and Genotyping by Target Sequencing (GBTS)

Making Science Affordable

With our leadership team’s long history of developing commercial products with substance, we believe 3CR Bioscience is uniquely positioned to facilitate our vision of making science affordable. Our products encompass PCR genotyping, molecular markers, pathogen detection, and more.
We specialise in developing high-performance products for various disciplines including plant, animal, human, and microbial genomics. We work alongside our customers to ensure our precision products are accessible and can be implemented effectively, regardless of budget or experience.

PCR genotyping

Accelerate your science

Grow your research, optimise productivity, relieve bottlenecks, and generate outstanding results with 3CR Bioscience. Discover cutting-edge innovation, advanced molecular biology tools, unrivalled technical support, and custom solutions to meet a diverse range of needs.

Technology leading genotyping reagents

Unlock the benefits of exceptional quality genotyping reagents, compatible with all allele-specific PCR assays, including PACE®, KASP™ and TaqMan®. Generate consistent, accurate data at any volume, with scalable and cost-effective solutions.

Take the guesswork out of marker development

Develop breeder-friendly markers rapidly from genomic variants such as SNPs and InDels with our free PACE assay design service and full or partial assay validation options. Accelerate your work, achieve your goals.

High-quality genotyping data, no purification needed

Obtain consistent, accurate genotyping data without sample purification, even from challenging or high-throughput starting material. Streamline your workflow and reduce costs and consumables without compromising data quality.

Rapid, sensitive pathogen detection

Customised precision technology for the fast, one-step detection of DNA and RNA-based pathogens. Proven efficacy and sensitivity across agricultural, veterinary, and medical applications.

MULTIPLEX GENOTYPING - EXPANDING POSSIBILITIES

Revolutionise your PCR genotyping with simultaneous detection of multiple targets in a single reaction. Reduce time, cost, and consumables with increased insight.

Industry leading support at every step

Access skills and knowledge that will maximise the rapid production of top-quality data routinely in your facility, regardless of its size or your level of experience.

Our results in numbers

Just some of the data on our industry leading reagent performance, assay development and customer service record.

0 %
PACE genotyping accuracy, independently verified
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YEARS OF COMBINED TECHNICAL EXPERIENCE
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customers worldwide
0 Million
assays designed to date
0 /TOP 10
seed producers worldwide trust PACE genotyping

Plant Genomics
and Breeding

Paving the way for protected plant
diversity, sustainable agriculture, and enhanced
crop traits with PACE genotyping

Animal Genomics
and Breeding

Advancing animal health, breeding, and conservation with PACE genotyping 

Human Genomics
and Disease

Genotyping at the frontiers of human health, investigating human genomics and disease

PACE

pace®

PCR Allelic Competitive Extension

Our patented genotyping chemistry, PACE, is the latest in allele-specific chemistry. It provides consistent performance making it ideal for high-throughput genotyping applications. PACE Genotyping Master Mixes are designed for use with PACE assays and can also be used directly with existing KASP™ and Amplifluor assays.

Unlike probe-based products such as TaqMan™, PACE assays only require un-labelled primer oligos to make up the PACE genotyping reaction, in combination with PACE Genotyping Master Mix. Watch our quick video explaining how PACE genotyping works.

All our master mixes are supplied at 2x concentration for convenience and contain ROX normalising dye at either high (500 nM working concentration), low (25 nM working concentration), standard ROX level (150 nM working concentration) or without ROX.

3CR Bioscience provides a free PACE assay design service plus full- or partial assay validation options to help you reduce the cost and turnaround time of your genotyping.

For Research and Development purposes only. Not for diagnostic use.

Legal Information
KASP™ is a trademark of LGC Biosearch Technologies
Amplifluor® is a registered trademark of Merck KGaA
TaqMan™ is trademark of Roche Molecular Systems, Inc.

pace®

PCR Allele Competitive Extension
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PROBESURE™

ProbeSure™ Genotyping Master Mix is designed for use with 5’ nuclease assays and is suitable for use with TaqMan™, BHQ®, BHQplus®, Zen™ probes. ProbeSure Genotyping Master Mix is supplied at 2x concentration for convenience and is supplied with the ROX normalising dye at either high level (500 nM final concentration), low level (25 nM final concentration) or without ROX.

ProbeSure Genotyping Master Mix has been carefully optimised to work over a wide dynamic range of reaction volumes and sample template qualities. ProbeSure Genotyping Master Mix combines class-leading performance with the most competitive prices in the market.  

For Research and Development purposes only. Not for diagnostic use.

Legal Information
TaqMan™ is a registered trademark of Roche Molecular Systems, Inc.
Zen™ Probe is a trademark of Integrated DNA Technologies, Inc.
KASP™, BHQ™ Probes, and BHQplus™ Probes are trademarks of LGC Biosearch Technologies
Amplifluor® is a registered trademark of Merck KGaA

probesure

Working with ProbeSure

PATHOGEN DETECTION

3CR Bioscience has developed precision solutions for rapid pathogen detection, applicable right across agricultural, veterinary, and medical disciplines. We have created PACE and ProbeSure OneStep RT-PCR, fluorescent PCR detection systems that can be customised for any DNA or RNA-based pathogens. Recent examples include the rapid, large-scale detection of agricultural disease outbreaks and the monitoring of circulating SARS-COV-2 variants within a population.

We have worked with many companies and organisations to develop a pathogen detection system and have now scaled-up our development to provide this as a service. Should you be interested in working with us to develop a pathogen detection system, please contact us at support@3crbio.com.

detection kits

Working with detection kits

Sequence submission and design

Customer supplies target DNA / RNA sequences. 3CR Bioscience designs assay(s) in-house, and orders primers and gBlocks for validation.

assay development

Pre-validated and optimised pathogen detection components are shipped to the customer. Components include validated assay and master mix (including RT enzyme for RNA pathogens) for the customer to test in their facility.

assay delivery

Pre-validated and optimised kit are shipped to the customer. The kit consists of validated assay and master mix (plus RT enzyme for RNA kits) for the customer to test samples on in-house qPCR instrument.

Assay Panels

An assay panel is a set of assays that can be supplied to our customers in either validated or non-validated format.

There are several reasons that some of our customers use assay panels, such as:

  • Sample Quality Control – testing all samples with the same subset of assays prevents genetic contamination by detecting and eliminating breeding errors early
  • Sample Tracking – using a genotyping panel to test samples prior to a project workflow, the same samples can be tested at the end of the workflow to verify sample integrity
  • Precision breeding – development of a large panel of markers can give end users the option to select bespoke markers for specific traits of interest


Should you wish to work with us to develop a specific panel please contact us.

Assay Panels

FREE PACE® ASSAY DESIGN SERVICE

Customers can use our free PACE assay design service to design allele-specific assays for use with our PACE Genotyping Master Mixes. We have extensive knowledge and experience in assay design, especially when it comes to allele-specific PCR. We also offer an additional full- or partial in-house assay validation service.

Our in-house scientific team design assays to your target sequences and then provide you with the optimised primer designs and sequences free of charge, allowing you to order from your chosen oligo manufacturer. We are not an oligo manufacturer, so prefer to concentrate on what we’re good at and let the experts manufacture the oligos.

From experience, we highly recommend IDT for oligo / assay synthesis. We have collaborated with IDT for many years and have always found their products to be of the highest quality, and are therefore our oligo manufacturer of choice.

To take advantage of our free PACE assay design service, you must have purchased PACE Genotyping Master Mix within the last 24 months. 

For Research and Development purposes only. Not for diagnostic use.

Legal Information
KASP™ is a trademark of LGC Biosearch Technologies
Amplifluor® is a registered trademark of Merck KGaA
TaqMan™ is trademark of Roche Molecular Systems, Inc.

Free Assay Design Service

Free PACE Assay Design Service

Save money to spend on valuable research by designing assays with us and purchasing oligos yourself, rather than paying a premium for someone else to do this for you.

Existing PACE Genotyping Master Mix customers can fill in the Customer Information and Customer Sequences pages of the PACE assay design submission template and email it to support@3crbio.com with your sequence(s) and targeted polymorphism(s), and we’ll design assays that are compatible with our PACE Genotyping Master Mixes.

The PACE assay design submission template includes the following sheets:

Customer Sequences

Blank template to be populated with your sequences for which you require assays to be designed.

Submission requirements

Details of how to complete the Customer Sequences page.

Example Layout

Detailing examples of how to submit various types of sequence.

Customer Sequences

Blank template to be populated with your sequences for which you require assays to be designed.

IUPAC codes

These are required if you have sequences with multiples markers. Download codes here.

We will return to you a file with two sheets:

Designs

Shows the oligo sequences, the allele definitions, Tm (°C) and GC content (%).

Oligo Order Template

Lists the primer IDs and sequences, so that they can be copied and pasted directly into the IDT oligo ordering form to receive assays in plates, should you wish.

Why use our free PACE assay design service?

COST

It is cheaper to order oligos individually from an oligo company such as IDT than it is to order ready made assays

Experience

Our design team has in excess of 100 years experience of designing and optimising primers for use in allele-specific PCR.

With our relationship with Integrated DNA Technologies (IDT) now well established, we continue to provide free PACE assay designs. We now also provide a pre-populated IDT ordering form for you to order your oligos from IDT and to receive the assays with all three oligos ready mixed in a well of a 96-well plate.

Integrated DNA Technologies logo
3CR Bioscience Logo gray

Custom solutions

3CR Bioscience is small enough to listen and big enough to deliver

Your ideas don’t always require traditional or existing catalogue products. You may require tailored product sizes, bulk product manufacturing, unique formulations or a specific format that is unavailable off-the-shelf. Contact us to discuss your requirements.

We offer our customers a free assay design service for allele-specific primers for use with all PACE Genotyping Master Mixes.

We are a master mix reagent manufacturer and not an oligo manufacturer. We want to concentrate on what we’re good at and let the experts manufacture the oligos. However, we do have extensive knowledge and experience in assay design, especially when it comes to allele-specific PCR.

We therefore are happy to offer this expertise to our customers and provide them with primer sequences, which they can then take to their oligo manufacturer of choice for synthesis.

From experience, we highly recommend IDT for oligo/assay synthesis. We have collaborated with IDT for many years and have always found their products to be of the highest quality, so much so, they are our oligo manufacturer of choice.

Custom formulation

We listen to and work with our customers to meet their requirements

Manufacturing

Customised process, customised quality control

Product Sizes

Small to large, we are happy to manage a variety of custom volumes and pack sizes

Packaging

Flexible order sizes, and custom packaging and labelling available

Collaborative R&D

We listen to and work with our customers to meet their requirements

OEM Products

We are open to OEM opportunities. Get in contact to discuss

Custom formulation

We listen and work with our customers to meet their requirements

Manufacturing

Customised process, customised quality, control

Product Sizes

Small to large, we are happy to manage a variety of volumes custom pack sizes

Packaging

Flexible order volume, custom packaging and labelling, customer branding

Packaging

Flexible order volume, custom packaging and labelling, customer branding

Collaborative R&D

We listen and work with our customers to meet their requirements

OEM Products

We listen and work with our customers to meet their requirements

Your ideas don’t always require traditional or existing catalogue products. You may require tailored product sizes, bulk product manufacturing, unique formulations or a specific format that is unavailable off-the-shelf.

Contact us to discuss your requirements.

Consumables

Our 384-well plate has a rigid, fully-skirted frame which remains stable during thermal cycling. The rigidity of the plate lends itself to automated and high-throughput PCR environments where robotic handling maybe in use.

The 2-component design reduces the risk of evaporation due to a poor sealing, commonly seen with 1-component PCR plates. Available with either clear or white wells.

Compatible with a wide range of PCR and qPCR applications, for a full list see ‘Plate Instrument Compatibility List’.

100% virgin medical grade polypropylene
384 wells, with a maximum capacity of 45µL
Certified free from DNase, RNase, nucleases and human gDNA
Compatible with a wide range of PCR and qPCR applications

Consumables

PCR plate
Great assistance, another role model of fast service. I was impressed with such high work efficiency."
Crop Researcher,
Global Commercial Grower
The PACE assay designed for Barley yellow dwarf virus (BYDV) worked out great, we now have a diagnostic marker for BYDV which is so much better than the SSR we currently use! We have tested it with both wheat and wheat grass lines in our breeding program and got perfect results."
Research Scientist,
University of Minnesota
Thank you for all your technical assistance and excellent customer service."
Research Scientist,
University of Minnesota
Cannabinoid type is largely governed by a single locus, and with PACE assays, we can screen thousands of plants for chemotype in a timeline of days rather than months using HPLC, and at a fraction of the cost."
Research Scientist,
Cornell University
I am very impressed with 3CR Bioscience and their PACE Genotyping Master Mix which we tested on several plant species. Their shipment is very speedy. The assay design service from the Technical Support team was very efficient in responding to my request. Thank you!"
Laboratory Service Lead,
Commercial Seed Producer
Thanks for your excellent customer service and quick turnaround times"
Researcher,
University of California, Davis
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3CR Blog

Explore our blog for regular tech notes, insightful ar ticles on the latest research, application notes, and compelling case studies highlighting the effectiveness of our genotyping products and services.

3CR News

Discover the latest updates and upcoming events from 3CR Bioscience, along with key developments from our valued par tners, MolBreeding Biotech and HC Scientific.

About Us

Founded in 2017, 3CR Bioscience Limited is led by a group of scientists who have built close ties together working for 20 years in R&D, product development and manufacturing, and who wanted to make high-quality scientific reagents affordable for all. We share the belief that more affordable reagents will empower scientists to produce
more data, with better outcomes, accelerating all areas of science for positive change.

About us

ADVANTAGES FOR YOUR BREEDING PROGRAM

Discover for yourself why 3CR Bioscience is a trusted partner for breeding programs wordwide, from large seed and livestock producers to individual breeders feeding local communities.

100 years of marker assisted breeding

Over 100 years experience in R&D, new product development, manufacturing and quality control.

Marker assisted breeding quality control

Extensive quality-control processes.

Quick marker assisted breeding

Quick turnaround times on orders.

Customisation icon

Free PACE assay design service for users

Marker assisted breeding after sales support

Knowledgeable after sales support.

Meet our Senior Leadership team

A company forged through decades of high-throughput genotyping innovation, founded and operated by scientists dedicated to serving the scientific commuity.

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MEET OUR TEAM

Steve Asquith Managing Director
Steve began his career in the Genetics Division of GlaxoSmithKline, as part of the team establishing GSK’s high-throughput core genotyping laboratory. Steve joined KBioscience when it was first founded in 2002 and was a key driver in taking the company from a small start-up to a multi-national service laboratory, quickly growing the company’s revenue to over $7.5M p.a. Following the acquisition of Kbioscience by LGC in 2011, Steve was appointed Global Director of Operations for LGC Genomics, responsible for over 100 staff in Europe and N. America, successfully elevating the genotyping products and service business. Steve held a crucial leadership role until he left in 2016. In 2017 Steve joined forces with John Holme to create 3CR Bioscience, a new company with a mission to deliver outstanding, customer-focused genotyping products with innovation and affordability at its core.
Dr. John Holme Technical Director
John joined KBioscience shortly after it was founded, in 2003, and became Head of Technical Development, building the company's genotyping and DNA extraction product portfolio and service delivery until 2011 when it was acquired by LGC. Post-acquisition, John was appointed Head of Technical Group for LGC Genomics, in charge of all Research & Development and Technical Support activities for the company. In this role John continued to build on the high-quality products and services provided to the companies growing customer base. During the 19 years John has worked in commercial R&D, he has co-invented numerous highly successful products including PACE®, ProbeSure, KASP™, KlearKall, KlearGene, KlearAmp and KlearTaq™, creating breakthrough offerings in genotyping and extraction and generating huge revenues for the companies he has worked in. In 2017, he joined forces with Steve Asquith and started 3CR Bioscience. John is dedicated to developing outstanding, innovative genotyping products and providing the very best technical support to customers globally.
Dr. Nisha JainOperations Director
Nisha has been innovating since the start of her career at Geneform Technologies developing Iso-thermal Genotyping Technologies. Nisha joined KBioscience in 2008, as Senior R&D Scientist and key account Technical Support Scientist, developing KASP and Klearkall performance and coinventing two further versions of KASP. Nisha has more than 15 years’ experience working in molecular biology and genotyping technologies, with extensive experience in the areas of R&D, Quality Assurance and Customer Technical Support. She has technically assisted many giants of the industry with their protocol development and troubleshooting and continues to deliver high-quality support and guidance. In 2018, Nisha joined 3CR Bioscience as Operations Director where she continues to develop PACE and ProbeSure for an increasing range of applications, and to grow 3CR Bioscience’s new product pipeline. Nisha is dedicated to developing outstanding, innovative genotyping products and providing the very best technical support to customers globally.
Nazma Saffin General Manager
For 20 years Nazma Saffin has worked and gained extensive expertise within the genotyping sector. Working at Kbioscience and then LGC, she has held operational leadership posts responsible for manufacturing and laboratory services. With experience of ISO 9001 implementation, production scale up and LEAN operations, Nazma has successfully led highly profitable production departments. Joining 3CR Bioscience in 2022, Nazma is committed to delivering operational excellence.
Jon Curtis Non-Executive Chair
After 8 years in The Royal Air Force, Jon moved to the Imperial Cancer Research Fund where he pioneered the use of ultra high-throughput genomic automation, capable of 46,000 PCRs per hour. In the 1990’s Jon joined GlaxoSmithKline, implementing a high-throughput genomics platform into their drug discovery pipeline. Whilst there he also developed acoustic mixing into compound management, becoming the gold standard across pharma. Jon developed the world’s first commercially viable 1536-well PCR plates, automated thermal & laser plate-sealer, plus automated liquid-handling & tip washing tools to reduce waste and costs. In 2002 Jon co-founded KBioscience with Phil Robinson, utilising ultra high-throughput PCR instrumentation & a suite of automation tools to create the company’s SNPline robotic platform, with a capacity of 250,000 PCRs/day. The business was underpinned by their ground-breaking patented genotyping chemistry, KASP™, which has over 10,000 scientific papers to date. In November 2022 Jon joined 3CR Bioscience acting as an advisor bringing his commercial and scientific experience to the company.