Described is a method for performing the amplification of nucleic acids by incubating in a vessel, in order to perform polymerization, a reaction mixture which contains in a suitable buffer solution one or several single-stranded target nucleic acids, suitable primers, deoxynucleoside triphosphates and a polymerase, whereafter the reaction mixture is transferred, by a procedure suitable in the given case, into another vessel for the denaturation of the nucleic acids, from which vessel, after denaturation, the reaction mixture is transferred back into the original vessel, by using a suitable procedure. The apparatus for performing this method includes one or several, preferably parallel, pairs of vessels. A vessel pair is made up of two vessels (1 and 2) which are interconnected or capable of being interconnected by means of one or several tubes (3). The apparatus may be provided with a separate heat exchanger (4) via which at least one of the tubes (3) passes, or a tube may as such serve as a heat exchanger. Each of the vessels is provided with a thermoregulator (11, 12), for example a heat block provided with a thermostat. Furthermore, the apparatus includes a fluid-transfer system (5-8, 10) for transferring the reaction fluid from one vessel to another. The vessel in which the polymerization occurs may be equipped with a suitable dosing device (9) for the adding of the polymerase and/or reagents. By using this apparatus it is possible fully automatically, without separate steps requiring an operator, to perform the amplification of nucleic acids on one or several samples simultaneously, under standardized reaction conditions.
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