If you ask any finished graduate student, most of us starting a Masters or PhD program were very excited at what awaited us and if you were anything like me, you were foolishly idealistic and thought you were going to pull on a lab coat, cure cancer and save the world. Ok, maybe most people [...]

Thanks to Bitesize Bio reader, Muthu Arumugam for contacting us about some problems he has been having with restriction digestion and clean up of DNA. I have boiled his query down to four main questions that are pertinent for most molecular biologists, so I hope that Muthu and everyone else can learn something from my [...]

It seems there is a reality TV show for virtually every type of person or profession. From Alaska king crab fishermen to surviving the outdoors to living the life of a privileged housewife, you name it and there is a show about it. So why not a show on the challenges and antics of people [...]

Gel extraction — what could be easier? Now we have quick and easy gel extraction kits, we no longer need to use time consuming old fashioned methods like electro-elution or “freeze and squeeze”. Thank goodness. When Gel Extraction Goes Wrong But even the simplest of procedures can go wrong. Maybe you were distracted, confused or [...]

The reverse transcription (RT) step of RT PCR for converting RNA to cDNA is critical for accuracy in quantification and for finding low copy messages. So you want to make sure that this step is performed with the highest efficiency but without having to optimize every single step. To help you further in optimizing the [...]

Whether cloning is your everyday work, or you just dabble, you are bound to meet the situation where you need to remove a stretch of unwanted DNA from your vector, e.g. to remove unwanted sequences or make an insertion. If you are lucky, two rare-cutter restriction sites will neatly flank the piece you want to [...]

Many of my current research projects are focused on the dirt that makes the world go round. No, not the kind that a paparazzi photographer or gossip columnist would be interested in. I am talking about soil. And I am particularly interested in the microbial communities living in soil. Why Many Soil Microorganisms are Undiscovered [...]

Attending the 2009 American Society of Microbiology meeting this week in Philadelphia, I decided to take my own advice and visit the exhibits to see whether any of the exhibiting companies had any really innovative and unique products on display. I focused mainly on products I might use in my own lab, such as PCR [...]

Are you looking for a way to… … expand your professional skill-set? … increase your professional marketability? … expand your creativity? Well let me recommend writing. And not just any old writing; writing for a creative and popular website… BitesizeBio.com. Writing is an essential skill for any scientist and Bitesize Bio is the perfect forum [...]

Attending conferences is critical for your research.  It is a great way to reinvigorate your enthusiasm and inspire  new ideas, as well as see old friends and make new ones. But it is also a valuable opportunity to visit many of your favorite companies. For some scientists the value is in collecting pens and free [...]