Cheetah™ Taq is a chemically modified hot-start Taq DNA polymerase useful for preventing or reducing nonspecific DNA amplification in PCR. Modified using a novel modifying reagent, Cheetah™ Taq represents a major improvement upon AmpliTaq Gold by having a faster activation time and better shelf-life.

Cheetah™ Taq regains both the 3′-5′ polymerase and 5′-exonuclease activities within two minutes. Cheetah™ Taq is also superior to antibody-based hot-start DNA polymerases due to its complete supression of enzyme activity at room temperature and full recovery of enzyme activity following activation.

Cheetah™ Taq is a patent-pending invention completely independent of AmpliTaq® Gold and related technologies.