Join Us
Sign up for our feature-packed newsletter today to ensure you get the latest expert help and advice to level up your lab work.
Before I get into today’s topic, please allow me to digress a bit and start with a few sentences that sum up the polymerase chain reaction (PCR); the grand-daddy of molecular biology. PCR, a method that is at the heart of modern day molecular biology discoveries, is a process that amplifies genetic material through our…
Say you just joined a lab and have been assigned your very own project to work on. As part of your new responsibilities, you have to breed and maintain the mutant (or transgenic) mouse line which you will be using for your experiments. An integral part of mouse genetics experiments is determining the genotype of…
Taking publication quality immunofluorescent images of can be a very time intensive, and frustrating process with hours spent capturing, processing, and putting the images into final figure format. And, if you aren’t careful, you can do a lot of work only to realize later that you need to re-image something for one reason or another….
Wow, you’ve done it! Your experiment worked and your boss asked you to write it up for publication in your favorite journal. Where to start with presenting your flow data? Take a deep breath, help is in hand in the form of the MIFloCyt Guidelines. As with other scientific techniques, there are ‘Minimum Information about…
Even in the most basic applications, fluorescence microscopy can be a very powerful technique. Simply put, the ability to actually see the biology you are interested in cannot be matched in directness. Often, the aim of fluorescence microscopy is to observe the effect of an experimental manipulation. Ultimately, you would like to know that the…
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…
It’s happened to us all, you are ready to run your samples on the cytometer and you can’t see your cells on the screen. Here are a few tricks to troubleshooting this: Cytometer vs. computer connection The different types of cytometers will need different orders for switching on the cytometer and computer. Some are cytometer…
Size selection is a critical step in NGS pipelines, but may be most challenging for studies of small RNAs. The concept behind size selection is simple: separate a sheared DNA or cDNA sample by fragment size, and then use the resulting sizes to remove unwanted fragments. This is a tried-and-true way to get rid of…
In the previous installment of this series on western blotting, we addressed potential sources of error when your final product is completely bare. But alternatively, what do you do when too much background is the problem? You may have beautiful bands of interest—but if there is a bunch of non-specific binding, your quantification and data…
In Part 1 of these articles, you’ll have learnt about common microscope light sources and how to replace and align these correctly. In this article, we will discuss the importance of Köhler illumination and how to set up the microscope to achieve optimal imaging results. What is Köhler illumination? Before discussing this technique, let us…
Do you want the best imaging experience each time you use a microscope? Well, this is a rhetorical question, as we all desire that these delicate optical instruments are clean, free from immersion oil and correctly aligned. From the routine checking of slides, capturing images for presentations and publications, to diagnosing diseases using point-of-care microscopes,…
It took scientists a little while to warm up to long-read sequencing, but now you couldn’t pry most of them away from their sequencers with a crowbar. Long reads — we’re talking 10,000 bases and more — provide a level of contiguity and completeness in genome assemblies that simply isn’t possible with short-read sequencers. They…
The age of sequencing is undoubtedly upon us. From improving cancer diagnostics to pinning down elephant poaching hotspots, DNA sequencing is revolutionizing the world around us from the ground up. The latest video from Thermo Fisher Scientific’s “Behind the Bench” blog, 10 moments in DNA sequencing gives fascinating insights into the amazing advances being made…
Of all the sample prep steps necessary for next generation sequencing, DNA size selection may have the greatest impact on quality of results. After all, ineffective sizing can waste sequencing capacity on low molecular weight material such as adapter-dimers or primer-dimers, while imprecise sizing can prevent bioinformaticians from producing accurate assemblies. High-quality size selection can…
Given enough time, even the worst rookie research disasters seem amusing. It’s a comedy of errors that test our wit and our patience, but ultimately leave a lifelong impression on how to try experimentation a little bit differently the second time around. With that said, here are 5 brief stories of amusing things I’ve witnessed…
Do you want to know more about the story behind some of today’s big developments in sequencing technology? Illumina recently started a video series called “Adventures in Genomics” that introduces the people working on methods and applications, making big waves in our understanding of science, biology, and medicine. The company’s most recent video covers single-cell…
Western Blotting is a long established method for which the protocol varies little from lab to lab. However, there are kits available and some tweaks that can be made to the protocols that may improve your results and reduce the time it takes you to execute this popular technique. Save Time by Co-Incubating the Primary…
Whether as a summer intern, exchange student, MSc, PhD or post-doctoral student, working abroad can be one of the many perks of working within the sciences. Although these experiences will often require substantial planning in advance, there are funding opportunities and many receptive destinations around the globe. During my undergraduate degree, graduate studies hadn’t been…
Although bench work is an integral part of becoming a successful scientist, it is by no means the only part of it. It is often the uncredited skill set possessed by many seasoned scientists that make them so valuable to employers and to further research. In this article I will highlight the less obvious skills…
As a graduate student or PhD scientist you are likely to be surrounded by plenty of career advice and options – that is, if you’re interested in a career in academic research or the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. Those of us who aren’t sold on either of those fields are left wondering what other career…
The flow cytometer that we have all grown to know and love may have only come into its own in the 1990’s, but who would have known that the first cell sorter was invented as early as the 1950’s? With the recent death of one of the key developers of fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS),…
As a protein biochemist and a Ph.D. student, I was given the task to express a eukaryotic protein in a bacterial system. And to say that I was having a hard time would be an understatement. It took me many PCRs, cloning and transformations to get to the right construct that would eventually express the desired…
The prospect of walking into the lab for the first time to do some ‘real’ research is hugely exciting. Ambitious thoughts fill your mind about what a brilliant research scientist you are about to become, making that all-important difference and saving the world. That is, until you step over the threshold and The Fear overcomes…
Sometimes the biggest hurdle to mastering a new topic is mastering the vocabulary. To help you master optical fibers I put together this illustrated glossary of Optical Fiber Vocabulary. Read this along with my first article “Introduction to Optical Fibers” and you will be well on your way to mastering optical fibers. Acceptance Angle The…
Normal cells are unable to replicate past several rounds of proliferation (termed the Hayflick limit) as with each round of proliferation the telomeres shorten. When the telomeres reach a critically reduced length, DNA damage is triggered leading to cellular senescence. Therefore, if you tried to culture a primary cell population it would eventually die unless…
While they may not be as in demand as when they were the basis of sequencing projects, bacterial artificial chromosomes (BACs) are still used for a wide variety of projects. Based off of the F origin of replication, BAC vectors can stably maintain up to 300 kb of sequence in a single plasmid, lending themselves…
If you look closely, there’s a scenario that plays out frequently in labs across the world: A scientist sits hunched over dry ice searching exhaustedly through frozen boxes for one sample that has disappeared into the abyss. The tube or specimen in question was likely catalogued at some point in time. But, between then and…
Murine bone marrow derived dendritic cells (BMDCs) are one of the easiest primary cell cultures to generate. The beauty lies in the fact that in the end you have a large quantity of robust DCs that can be matured and used to study a variety of DC functions and DC-T-cell interactions. But there are a…
Monoclonal antibodies: You’ve probably heard a lot about them. Unsurprisingly, you may have also used them in your research. These antibodies (mAbs) are classically produced by the hybridoma technology pioneered by Köhler and Milstein in 19751: A mouse is immunized with the substance against which you need to produce an antibody. The mouse spleen cells (consisting…
A new lab toy to make it big in the last 5–10 years is the Accuri C6 cytometer (now under the BD umbrella), a low-cost instrument in comparison to the big boys. Lightweight, with a small footprint and straightforward maintenance, it’s often the cytometer of choice. It may be suitable for those labs that require…
There is something undeniably special about embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and not just because they can produce every cell type in the adult body. In vivo, ESCs are a transitory state of early development, which has been captured indefinitely in vitro. Whether you are a hardened cell culture enthusiast or have just graduated from the…
If you’re new to next gen sequencing, figuring out what to do with your results can be a daunting process. Luckily, you’re not alone—plenty of people have been in your shoes, and there is tons of information about data analysis out there. Here are some free resources you can use to get up to speed…
I think we all have been through those my-PCR-product-didn’t-get-amplified days. Sometimes, playing around a bit more with the PCR conditions brings luck, or sometimes it doesn’t work at all. These days we have access to many different types of DNA polymerases, ultrapure and buffered nucleoside triphosphates, and other necessary starting materials in convenient concentrations; but…
I still remember the first time I stood in front of a crowd of about 35 people, including my brand new lab mates and professors, in my first ever lab meeting. My feet were as wobbly as ever, and all I wanted was a big boulder to hide behind, so my crazy, shaky legs would…
So far in this series I have given you an overview of how STED works and how to design your STED experiments. In this final article, I will tell you how to do two color STED and go over some tips and tricks to acquire the best images from your sample. Dual Color STED Fluorophore…
During my second year in graduate school, I (silently) started freaking about life post-PhD. I read voraciously about science writing, scientific editing and business consulting positions. I went to seminars offered by the career center at my school. But, I was still lost. Between all the pipetting and PCRs, I could not figure out what…
While most may think standard Taq is the backbone of PCR, many other DNA polymerase options exist. The polymerase you use significantly impacts the efficacy of your PCR, specifically on the product yield, the purity of the product, and the faithfulness with which the starting product is transcribed. Sometimes, these matter less, and quick and…
Through our eyes, seeing is not always believing. Under different lighting conditions, we tend to see the same objects as having the same color. For example, an apple will appear red whether it is lit by daylight or candlelight and a white sheet of paper will be perceived as being white regardless of the light…
When you share an incubator with a number of people it can be very hard to keep a clean shop and months, or more, of work can be lost due to contamination. The two biggest sources of bugs in an incubator are: Both of these can be kept sterile using a few tips that we’re…
In many biological experiments the question that a researcher wants to ask is – ‘do some or all of my cells express a particular protein?’ There are many ways of doing this, which you will be familiar with e.g. Western blotting, immunoprecipitation, microscopic examination of stained cells and even mass spectrometry. Using Flow Cytometry to…
The eBook with top tips from our Researcher community.