Isolating RNA is one of the more finicky protocols there is, and everyone who does it has their own personal tips and tricks to successfully isolate intact RNA from their samples with consistency. Although RNA can be somewhat unpredictable since it is so labile, there are a few common problems that occur which can be logically [...]

The decision to make the switch from an academic lab and career to a biotech company doesn’t come easy. Many scientists are wary of the lack of independence and doing science for profit.  But there are advantages too. Working in a biotech lab allows you to work on many varied and interesting projects that actually come to [...]

When I was in graduate school, it seemed that almost no one aspired to work in industry or be part of a company. But times are changing. Now, when I go to conferences and talk to scientists in training, I am asked, ”how do I get a job in a company?” and “How did you get [...]

I had the unique opportunity to attend a lecture by the CEO of Life Technologies, Greg Lucier, just recently here in San Diego. The lecture was organized by Leo Lee, the creator of a new group on Linkedin.com called Leadership Builder and the title of the presentation was “Developing Executive Leadership: What it Takes to [...]

We give a lot of troubleshooting help on DNA and RNA isolation here at Bitesize Bio because almost everything we do in molecular biology requires DNA or RNA at the very first step.  These days, most labs use commercial kits, which employ spin columns, for the isolation of nucleic acids. The spin columns contain a [...]

Joanne Manaster is a woman on a mission. She loves science and she wants to introduce kids to everything there is to love about science. So this summer, her mission is to stimulate the minds of children and teens everywhere by challenging them to read non-fiction science books. In collaboration with Jeff Shaumeyer, program director of  www.scienticity.net, she has organized a [...]

Real-time PCR is a technique that is now commonly employed in almost all molecular biology laboratories to quickly answer very specific questions. Northern and Southern blotting are now a thing of the past. No longer do we wait days to know whether a gene is expressed. We can have the answer in 45 minutes! But with the [...]

While reading my back issues of Applied and Environmental Microbiology (AEM), I came across an interesting paper that detailed an in-depth study on the effectiveness of hand cleaners to remove Norwalk virus (NV) from intentionally contaminated hands. Yes that’s right – intentionally contaminated, and how. The study volunteers allowed a 20% stool suspension containing Norwalk virus to be [...]

One of the very first things you need to do when getting set up for quantitative PCR (qPCR) is to determine the efficiency of the assay because knowing the assay efficiency is critical to accurate data interpretation. And you have to do this every time you design and purchase a new primer pair. Ideally, the [...]

A recent  article published by The Scientist called Power Couples gave advice and examples for scientist couples who have successfully balanced their life at home and in the lab.  It was interesting from the perspective of how two very busy and career motivated people work together to have it all: raise a family, run a lab, and stay in love [...]