{"id":796,"date":"2013-10-21T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-10-21T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.idtdna.com\/page\/calculations-converting-from-nanograms-to-copy-number"},"modified":"2025-08-22T16:06:03","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T16:06:03","slug":"calculations-converting-from-nanograms-to-copy-number","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.idtdna.com\/page\/support-and-education\/decoded-plus\/calculations-converting-from-nanograms-to-copy-number\/","title":{"rendered":"Calculations: Converting from nanograms to copy number"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>How to convert from nanograms to copy number<\/h2>\n<p>Researchers performing qPCR will often create a <a href=\"\/pages\/education\/decoded\/article\/easily-designed-standard-curves-for-qpcr\">standard curve<\/a>&nbsp;based on nanograms of amplicon, and then need to convert the resulting nanograms detected to copy number. The formula for making this conversion is:<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.idtdna.com\/page\/wp-content\/uploads\/idt-images\/a9dd5915-3279-6e2e-aa53-ff00001c1b3c-ng-to-copy-eqn.png\" title=\"D-OLI13LT-E1\" data-openoriginalimageonclick=\"true\" data-displaymode=\"Original\" alt=\"ng to copy eqn\" \/><figcaption class=\"image-caption\">Figure 1. Formula for converting from nanograms to copy number.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<p>Where: X = amount of amplicon (ng) N = length of dsDNA amplicon 660 g\/mol = average mass of 1 bp dsDNA 6.022 x 10<sup>23 <\/sup>= Avogadro&rsquo;s constant 1 x 10<sup>9<\/sup> = Conversion factor<\/p>\n<p><span>&dagger; The actual oligonucleotide MW (in Daltons or g\/mol) is provided on the IDT Spec Sheet for each oligonucleotide and can be substituted for this arithmetic phrase, which only provides an average MW for a sequence of this length.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>It is important to note if using a single stranded DNA (ssDNA) oligo as a template, the molecular weight provided on the IDT Spec Sheet can replace the (N * 660 g\/mol) factor in the formula in Figure 1. However, if you want to calculate that factor using the length of a ssDNA molecule, then the average mass would be 330 g\/mol, instead of 660&nbsp;g\/mol.<\/p>\n<p> Alternatively, you can create the standard curve based on copy number; e.g., ranging from 10<sup>2<\/sup>&ndash;10<sup>7<\/sup> copies, in 10-fold increments. Then you can determine copy number directly from the standard curve. <\/p>\n<h2><strong>Let a free copy number calculator do it for you!<\/strong> <\/h2>\n<p>A convenient, free-access copy number calculator to convert nanograms to copy number for real time PCR (RT-PCR) was developed by former IDT customer, Andrew Staroscik, who has since left the bench. <\/p>\n<p> The copy number calculator can be found <a href=\"https:\/\/scienceprimer.com\/copy-number-calculator-for-realtime-pcr\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"margin-top disclaimer-text\">RUO23-1753_001.1<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How to convert from nanograms to copy number Researchers performing qPCR will often create a standard curve&nbsp;based on nanograms of amplicon, and then need to convert the resulting nanograms detected to copy number. The formula for making this conversion is: Figure 1. Formula for converting from nanograms to copy number. Where: X = amount of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ct_builder_shortcodes":"","ct_template_type":"","ct_parent_template":0,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Researcher Formula for Copy Number Calculation | IDT<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Discover the formula researchers use to create a qPCR standard curve. Learn how to calculate copy number through converting nanograms to copy number.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.idtdna.com\/page\/support-and-education\/decoded-plus\/calculations-converting-from-nanograms-to-copy-number\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Researcher Formula for Copy Number Calculation | IDT\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Discover the formula researchers use to create a qPCR standard curve. 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