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Search below to delve into the Bitesize Bio archive. Here, you’ll find over two decades of the best articles, live events, podcasts, and resources, created by real experts and passionate mentors, to help you improve as a bioscientist. Whether you’re looking to learn something new or dig deep into a topic, you’ll find trustworthy, human-crafted content that’s ready to inspire and guide you.
Here are some ideas to make your liquid handling robot perform at its best.
Struggling with your PhD advisor relationship? Sometimes its repairable and sometimes it’s better to switch. Discover how to identify when it’s time to switch advisors and steps you can take to ensure a smooth successful change to keep your research and academic goals stay on track.
Graduate students in the United States are privileged when it comes to picking their prospective labs: most programs have student rotate through several laboratories to help them choose their PhD lab. Here are some suggestions for questions to ask.
On the surface, it would seem easy enough to pick an enzyme (or an amount of enzyme) for an experiment. Just look at the concentration on the label, adjust accordingly, and you’re on your way. Alas, not with enzymes. The number of units used to measure enzymes is dizzying. However, it’s better now than it…
Viability PCR (vPCR) is a big step forward in PCR technology. Through the use of a simple pre-treatment of the sample(s) of interest using specific intercalating reagents, it is possible to neutralize the DNA of dead cells. As a result, only DNA from live cells will be amplified by PCR. Through the vPCR, it’s possible to…
Agroinfiltration is a method for the transient expression of your protein of interest in a plant system. You can use it for the production of recombinant proteins or simply to determine the sub-cellular localization of your protein.
There are some wonderful toys in the lab that enable us to open up a whole new world in science. One of those is a rather pricey and an incredibly sensitive laser-based apparatus capable of counting and sorting cells, detecting biomarkers, and engineering proteins: the flow cytometer. By propelling cells through the path of the…
As biochemists, we routinely run SDS-PAGE to analyze our proteins. Imagine the time and effort you are going to save when you can run every gel to perfection.
While overexpressing a gene of interest can provide a look into its role in a cell, sometimes it is necessary to control the expression of a gene. You may want to dictate the timing of the protein’s expression or lower its expression level to adequately understand its function. This is particularly relevant when studying genes that…
A number of studies have shown that work–life balance, as well as personal happiness, positively correlates with productivity, professional achievement and success. Looks like that happiness is not only a luxury but it might be a key ingredient for success.
In part I, I answered the question, “How do proteins in thermophiles survive under high temperatures?“ In this part, I’ll look look at how nucleic acids survive -thrive, even- in conditions that are too hot for most of us, but ideal for a number of organisms, including the one that gave us Taq polymerase and…
Get some ideas on what CRISPR can do for you and what using it involves.
If I had a barrel of apples for each time I’ve heard one of my classmates or friends say, “Oh, I want to work in a lab, but I don’t know how to find one” I could build a moon base out of apples. Working as an undergraduate will help you land sweet internships, look…
Is your goal to purify a substantial amount of a specific protein? Do you have a quantity of a molecule that binds your protein of interest? If so, generating a custom affinity matrix may be just the trick you need to purify your protein of interest by affinity chromatography. Customizing your affinity chromatography is an…
Predicting how proteins will fold in vivo is a Holy Grail of proteomics and theoretical chemistry. Current hopes are that this can be achieved by designing an in silico platform that can predict protein folding, either de novo (a.k.a. from scratch) or using known proteins as a guide. What would we need to do, why…
In Part 1 of this article, I introduced you to using code for basic image manipulation in ImageJ and working with the command recorder to expand your coding vocabulary. I covered how to make a simple macro, how to edit it and then save it to be run again another time. If you skipped the…
The most comprehensive way to evaluate DNA concentration and purity is to use both UV spectrophotometeric measurements and agarose gel eletrophoresis. This quick reference guide gives an overview of the information that can be derived from both. UV spectrophotometric measurement of DNA concentration and purity DNA itself, and most of the common contaminants found in…
Read our top tips on how to write a scientific review, from gathering your information to getting it published.
Are you an assiduous biologist who prefers label-free imaging methods for biological samples analysis? Raman spectroscopy offers you a wonderland of imaging technique with unlimited benefits. To start with, Raman Spectroscopy is a spectroscopic technique based on inelastic scattering of monochromatic light usually from a laser in the visible or near infra-red part of electromagnetic…
ECL can be an expensive reagent in a lab. Why not make your own? Hopefully, this quick, simple and cheap solution will be of help to you!
We’re already gone through the basics of how gel electrophoresis work, compared common gel types like agarose and polyacrylamide and even explored some alternatives. Now let’s look at the native versus denaturing gels. You’ll be a speGEList in no time! Denaturing Gels We’ll start with this one, as it’s very self-explanatory. Denaturing gels are exactly…
In real life, cells are instructed to commit suicide for the greater good of the organism. The programmed cell death (apoptosis) is important during development of a multi-cellular organism. A good example you will appreciate is the dis-appreance of the tail from a tadpole as it turns into a frog. On the reverse, the lack…
This article mentions of suicidal thoughts. If you are having thoughts of self-harm, I encourage finding someone to talk to. It can be a family member, friend, or professional counselor. Many countries also have suicide hotlines. Mental Health is often not a priority for institutions or individuals in academia. Making institutions friendlier will take time,…
Need tips for surviving being the newbie of the lab, and what you can do to handle all the possible personality types you may encounter. Read on.
Interested in whether your protein uses oxygen to mediate reactions? Wondering if oxygen is keeping your enzyme from its duty? Then what you need as an anaerobic tent! These tips provide some basic knowledge to help you perform experiments using an anaerobic tent. What is an anaerobic tent? Most biologists who work in oxygen-free environments…
Normally you need two primers to amplify your segment of interest – one for the 3′ end of your segment of interest and one for your 5′ end. But if you don’t know the sequence of the regions you’re hoping to amplify this can be a problem! Rapid Amplification of cDNA Ends (RACE) is a…
Lab work, as we are all aware, comes with many pressures: one of which is productivity. You want to generate as much quality data as possible to meet publication deadlines or perhaps the elusive thesis. Sometimes it may feel like hours spent in the lab don’t match the amount of data produced: for some this…
So, you’ve extracted your precious RNA and want to check its quality on a gel. Conventionally, you would run a formaldehyde gel, which is messy and requires a lot of prep. Plus, it is a huge undertaking in terms of time (and money) if all you want to do is just check the quality of…
This guide on qPCR for dummies explains the key differences between qPCR and traditional PCR, emphasizing the importance of controls, plate design, and DNA preparation. It covers planning your experiment, setting up triplicates, and managing data to ensure accurate and reliable results. With practical tips on dilution and data handling, this article helps beginners confidently prepare for their first qPCR experiment.
Choosing a PhD topic can be very hard. There are a lot of things to consider from the subject to the supervisor. Here are some tips to help you choose. Find out what you really like This is the first topic because it is the most important. My first advice would be to get some…
You have a new plasmid, now what do you do? You are excited to go further with your project. But before you can move on, you have to confirm the presence of your insert as well as the sequence and orientation of the insert. Is the insert the right size? Most people use restriction enzymes…
Let’s face it, at least once in your lab life you are going to need a favor. You may need to go on vacation, you may be sick or you may just be a little overwhelmed at the bench. At least once, you will need to ask for a little help and someone will surely…
We can, however, use special dyes or engineered proteins to bind to calcium, indicating where in the cell it is. The trick is determining which probe is most suitable to your cells and application.
Having just finished graduate school, I have been given the privilege of nearly unlimited time to reflect (Yay! Unpaid, Boo!). Graduate school was, for me, a juxtaposition of intellectual growth, real-world learning and great fun. An introduction to adulthood with training wheels—while simultaneously being a blur of anxiety, work, sleepless nights and existential crises. I…
PhDs have been known for their nightmarish effects on students’ psychological wellbeing, to the point that the acronym PhD has also been dubbed ‘Permanent Head Damage’, ‘Philosophically Disturbed’ or ‘Please Help. Desperate’. Doing a PhD is an emotionally exhausting experience rather than being physically challenging. Here are some tips on how to survive the PhD…
RNA sequencing (Wang 2009) is rapidly replacing gene expression microarrays in many labs. RNA-seq lets you quantify, discover and profile RNAs. For this technique, mRNA (and other RNAs) are first converted to cDNA. The cDNA is then used as the input for a next-generation sequencing library preparation. In this article, I’ll give a brief…
At a conference, a poster can be a great tool for drawing people into conversation. Not only do you have something to break the ice with, you can also get really useful feedback from a completely different perspective! To make sure you get the most out of your poster time it’s important to have a…
Recently, I have witnessed the uprising of various next generation sequencing (NGS) platforms and it’s quite interesting because each platform uses a different method. Previously, I’ve written about the exciting possibility of nanopore sequencing—a new sequencing technology based on the “signature” electrical currents generated as a single strand of DNA passes through the nanopore. The…
Mammalian cell culture techniques are not simple, and culturing the cells requires a lot of maintenance as well as patience. In addition, doubling times compared to bacterial cells can take days instead of hours, which is most evident when contamination occurs. However, implementing small-scale hollow fiber bioreactors for culturing mammalian cells can save a lot…
When restrictions come in the form of paperwork and approvals, we detest them. Whereas, when the restrictions come in the form of enzymes, we love them, don’t we? Restriction enzymes play a key role in biotechnology research. Read ahead for six useful facts about restriction enzymes. 1. Restriction enzymes are helpful to bacteria Restriction enzymes…
Enhance accuracy, reproducibility, and insight in 2D cell culture research.
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