Shoba

IBM
Shoba Anantha
Shoba is currently Director Of Business Development at IBM in Wisconsin. She has a PhD in Biology from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Articles by Shoba

Get the qPCR Fluorescence Low Down with Plexor

Get the qPCR Fluorescence Low Down with Plexor

In real-time PCR, there are two primary ways to detect amplicons using fluorescent monitoring. One is intercalator-based dyes such as SYBR Green, and the other is probe-based techniques (hydrolysis or hybridization probes). All of these methods share a similar mechanism of measuring increasing fluorescence during amplification. But there is another completely different way to quantitatively…

Controls and Tips for TA Cloning

Controls and Tips for TA Cloning

Controls are obviously extremely important when setting up experiments. Without them, a meaningful interpretation of the experimental results would be impossible. I say obviously, but in my previous job as a technical services scientist, you’d be surprised at how often I found myself talking to customers about the importance of controls. One customer commented, during…

Solved: Low Yields in Cell-Free Protein Synthesis

Solved: Low Yields in Cell-Free Protein Synthesis

In my last article, I introduced Cell-Free Protein Synthesis. Today I want to talk about a major bottleneck in in vitro cell-free protein expression; low yield. Most often, paying attention to the important factors such as template purity and design, transcription and translation inhibitors, and potassium and magnesium concentration will solve any problems with low…

Quantitative RT-PCR: One-step or Two-step RT?

Quantitative RT-PCR: One-step or Two-step RT?

qRT-PCR (quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction) is now the gold standard technique for mRNA detection and quantification, sensitive enough to enable quantification of RNA from a single cell. The reverse transcription (RT) step is the main source of variability in a qRT-PCR experiment, so an optimal reverse transcription is essential for a reliable and successful…