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Today, PCR is as common a feature to the lab as pipettes and beakers. The majority of us regularly need to amplify our DNA or RNA samples, sometimes for an ‘everyday’ PCR run just to check if our primers actually work, or in a quantitative (q)PCR run, where we might be comparing the levels of…
Over the years, I’ve had my fair share of ups and downs in the lab. The latter quite often centering on a failed or plainly weird PCR experiment. As I’ve gone on and become ever more fastidious about my lab practices I’ve realized that the majority of these little calamities were perfectly avoidable. In my…
Whether you’re a grad student or a post-doc, the decision to apply for external funding should be a no-brainer. It is in both your boss’s and your own interests to do this and will undeniably help you in future career pursuits. But before you even sit down to write, it’s important to do your research…
Bisulfite pyrosequencing is becoming a routine technique in molecular biology labs as a method to precisely measure DNA methylation levels right down to the single base. The technique allows for detailed and high resolution analysis of DNA methylation at specific genomic regions. How to detect the 5th base? Methylation of any of the four nucleotides…
For those of us who work with Mus musculus or Homo sapiens, to name a couple of species, a few clicks on UCSC Genome Bioinformatics Site or Ensembl gets you the full and precise DNA sequence for any annotated gene in the genome. This luxury is not in place for all species however; many of…
Most of us have had to write a lay summary or abstract at some point. How easy do you find this? In my experience, it is harder than you think! Whether for your thesis, graduate fellowship grant application, or even lab newsletter, writing about your research in plain English is a crucial skill. Communicating your…
The field of epigenetics is exploding and given the strong links between epigenetic state and disease, the need to study markers like DNA methylation in humans is very relevant. This article outlines some of the main factors you should be taking into account in your study of DNA methylation in human tissues. Here goes: Biological…
With ever increasing demands on researchers to publish, sometimes it feels like the whole world and their dog are vying for authorship on your latest manuscript. Appropriate and fair representation of those that contributed to sample collection, lab experiments and preparation of the manuscript is essential but can often be complex. So in this article…
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