John Mackay
John is interested in using molecular diagnostics to solve industry issues – working on samples as diverse as wine, truffles, grapevine and human. He also consults on PCR and real-time PCR assay development as technical director for the company dnature.
Articles by John Mackay
What is HRM Analysis? It is now more than a decade since the introduction of melting analysis to characterize PCR products. Melting analysis following SYBR green-based real-time PCR has become a mainstay in research laboratories worldwide for applications such as gene expression because of it’s ease of design and cost-effectiveness (i.e. no need for expensive labeled probes).…
If you’re performing DNA/RNA precipitations, you will have read Suzanne’s excellent article on which alcohol to use for precipitating your precious samples (check out some useful info in the comments for that article as well). Its publication prompted the recall of a useful tip I learned from a post-doc many years ago, one of those…
One of the great features of PCR is its excellent sensitivity as we know. And many articles describe real-time qPCR as an added leap forward in that sensitivity – to the point where it has become a standard feature of a new assay description Indeed, I’m currently developing a new qPCR assay to replace a…
It’s the molecular biologist’s version of ‘I have good news. . and bad news’. The good news is that I amplified the DNA band of interest. The bad news is that I amplified these other bands as well! Oh, and this smear. What to do? Typically you might try and cut out the band of…