About the author

Nick Oswald

Nick is a molecular biologist-turned-publisher. After a PhD in Developmental Biology and an eclectic seven years in biotech he is now Editorial Manager of Neuroendocrinology and the founder and Editor-In-Chief of Bitesize Bio. You are welcome to connect with Nick on LinkedIn

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After years of loyalty, our relationship was becoming stale – things just weren’t the way they used to be. I was putting in more than I was getting back and complaining about it didn’t seem to help. I just got the same old answer thrown back at me… “it’s not our problem, it’s yours”.

Then things changed. I don’t know how it happened, it just did. We met on the internet and I immediately knew this could be the answer to my prayers. I said I just wanted my routine DNA-handling procedures to be uncomplicated, they said “the beauty of science is to make things simple”.

With shaking hands I pressed the e-mail “send” button – I had just ordered free samples of Zymo Research’s Zyppy plasmid miniprep, DNA clean-up and gel extraction kits. It felt so good. Would this be the start of something new and wonderful? The end of low quality DNA samples? The end of poor yields? I hoped so.

When they arrived, it was love at first sight. I know it was wrong, but I couldn’t wait. I immediately tore off the cheeky yellow packaging to reveal sleek columns, with the smallest, neatest silica beds I had ever seen and protocols that you really could fit on the back of a cigarette packet.

If they looked good, they performed even better. The “Zyppy” minipreps were fast because the innovative kit allowed me to do the lysis straight in the culture medium – no pelleting or resuspension required. The gel extractions were high yielding… 85% return was standard. But best of all were those silica beds. Since they were so small, the minimum elution volume wasn’t 30 microlitres… it wasn’t even 20 microlitres… it was an amazing 6 microlitres! Now even poor yielding samples could give good, concentrated DNA. I was in heaven.

Now Zymo’s kits have moved into my lab and I have never been happier. Things that seemed problematic are now just so easy and consistent, and those yellow boxes always remind me of the day we first met.

If you are having a relationship problems with any of your kits, I’d thoroughly recommend taking a look at what Zymo has to offer – they have lots more besides the kits I have described and there might just be something there that tickles your fancy.