Lyophilization is done by freezing and sublimation in a vacuum, forming a cake or bead, it has very low viscosity and up to 99% of the moisture is removed. Drying normally take 18-24 hours and requires cryo-excipients that protect the enzymes during the freezing. The cost is high as a freeze vacuum drier and low moisture environment are required.

Air-drying is done by heating in a convection oven, forming a highly viscous pellet, with about 95% of the moisture removed. Drying normally take less than 2 hours and requires heat protecting excipients that protect the enzymes at higher temperatures. The cost is low as no additional equipment is required.

The Air-Dryable^™ qPCR and RT-qPCR master mixes have some inhibitor tolerance, but for amplification from crude lysates or inhibitor-rich samples we have the air-dryable sample specific (blood, saliva, urine, stool, and plant) mixes.

Yes, reaction conditions are the same and they will produce the same Ct values, even with multiplex qPCR assays. This means that the liquid mixes can be used to create SOPs if you do not want to dry down and then later if drying is required (for example to increase sensitivity), the SOP can be updated for oven drying, it does not require completely new SOPs to be written.

It is stable for up to 2 years at ambient temperature if correctly stored in sealed pouches.