Western blotting was first introduced in 1979 and has become a routine technique for protein analysis in laboratories worldwide. While western blotting can be highly specific, it is very low throughput as a technique and requires large amounts of sample and expensive antibodies. Furthermore, blots are extremely labour intensive and require a high level of [...]

Welcome to part two of “What Can NMR Do For You?”, a three-part series in which we see how you can use simple NMR experiments in your research. In part one, we went over some key points to keep in mind when doing NMR on proteins and DNA, such as sample preparation, and saw how [...]

Ever wake up especially groggy in the morning, finding it takes a few minutes and a few eye rubs to be able to decipher the numbers on your alarm clock? Our eyes have the ability to resolve an image, so that you can observe separate objects and details. Similarly, microscopes have a parameter of resolution: [...]

Dichroic Mirror/Filter This is a semi-reflective filter which can also be referred to as ‘dichromatic beam splitter’. Unlike the Longpass filters which absorb light which is not transmitted (see Part 1 of the Glossary), these filters reflect light at lower wavelengths and transmit light at wavelengths above the ‘cut-on’ wavelength. As beam splitters, they are [...]

The fusion of two genes can occur as the result of genomic rearrangements such as the breakage and re-joining of two different chromosomes, or from rearrangements within a chromosome (deletions, insertions, inversions). Gene fusions are a common event in the development of some cancers, particularly hematological (blood) cancers, sarcomas, and prostate cancer. Next Generation Sequencing [...]

Brightfield Illumination This defines the most basic method of optical microscopy using white light to illuminate the sample in the transmitted mode. Absorption and diffraction of the light by the molecules in the specimen generates the contrast in the image. Methods such as darkfield illumination, differential interference contrast and phase contrast help to increase the [...]

A revolution in 2005 The start of the NGS revolution was clearly marked in 2005 by the  publication of the complete genome sequences of two bacterium (Mycoplasma genitalium and Streptococcus pneumonia) by 454 Life Sciences Corporation in one run of their Genome Sequencer with a 96% coverage at 99.96 % accuracy (Margulies et al. 2005). [...]

Just before Life Technologies purchased the start-up company Ion Torrent, the fledgling company was dealing with a torrent of another kind—worldwide media interest in its new sequencing technology, which promised to bring the price of next-generation, massively parallel sequencing down to $1,000 per run. Since that dramatic announcement in the summer of 2011, Life Technologies [...]

Don’t be left in the dark! Navigating through the sea of parameters that can aid or abet successful microscopy can perhaps seem daunting. It may be tempting to assume you can just sit down at a microscope, look at your sample, and obtain beautiful images simply by hoping for the best. However, even a basic [...]

You’ve spent days, perhaps weeks or months squirrelling away tubes of preserved tissue in the dark drawers under your laboratory bench like the trophies of a demented serial-killer. Hours have been spent in histology in the processing, embedding and sectioning onto slides. Finally, like a warrior victorious in battle, you hold aloft your thin glass [...]