In 1873, Ernst Abbe made the discovery that the resolution of widefield optical microscopy is limited by the diffraction of light. This means that object details spatially smaller than 200 nm are not readily discernible by light microscopy. This poses an obvious limit to the study of many biological problems at the cellular level. Looking [...]

Formalin fixed, paraffin embedded (FFPE) samples are derived from tissues (usually suspected tumor samples) that are fixed with formalin to preserve the cytoskeletal and protein structure and then embedded in a type of paraffin wax so the tissue can be sliced on a microtome, an instrument used to prepare very fine slices, 5-10 microns thick. Formalin [...]

It’s early April and all the signs of springtime are here… rain showers, blossoming flowers and trees and most of all, the bustle of frantic graduate students preparing to write and defend their theses.  This is a time in the academic calendar when students traditionally prepare to finish their PhDs and transition into postdocs or [...]

Genomic DNA clean-up is a technique that is very common but still causes many people to suffer from separation anxiety.  Here’s a look at some tips and tricks to improve your DNA clean-up and avoid the loss of precious samples. Why is my DNA “dirty”? Here’s the scene: You’ve collected a set of samples, they could [...]

We know that scientists like to be selective about their RNA.  That’s because most of our RNA technical questions involve a desire to retain or exclude certain varieties of RNA. It’s not always possible to get what you want; but sometimes by making slight adjustments to the extraction protocol, it is possible to get what [...]

AGBT is by far one of the most significant scientific meetings dedicated to the latest advances of DNA sequencing technologies and applications, and DNAnexus is proud to be among the sponsors this year. Held annually in the tropical paradise of Marco Island, Florida, the meeting draws over 800 life science professionals. This year there is [...]

Quantifying brain activity through optical imaging has the potential to change the way the biomedical community treats neurological disorders and brain injuries. Dr. Ofer Levi, Ph.D., assistant professor at the University of Toronto’s Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, is setting out to prove that with the right technology and team, real-time, dual modality brain [...]

Population Genetics Technologies Ltd., a company dedicated to the development of innovative approaches for genetic analyses and biomarker discovery, has today launched the Populus Award 2012. Inviting abstracts from researchers undertaking a range of population genetics studies, the award will provide the successful applicant with funding and practical support for their sequencing study, as well as [...]

Cresset, innovative provider of software and services for molecule designers, unveils sparkV10, the next generation of its bioisostere software tool FieldStere.  Building on FieldStere’s industry-leading ability to find structurally novel biologically equivalent replacements for key moieties in molecules, this update provides powerful new capabilities including Cresset’s new XED3 force field, new clustering algorithms and access to ADMET [...]

In the past, scientists may have used different cameras for different applications. For very low-light, high-speed imaging (such as TIRF or spinning disc confocal) an EM-CCD camera would have been used. For other fluorescent applications (such as GFP or multichannel imaging), researchers would have used cooled CCD cameras. But now, the ORCA-Flash4.0 is changing all [...]