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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.
In my previous article on DNA gel extraction, I explained how most commercially available DNA gel extraction kits work. However, there was a time before our society was blessed with these convenient marvels of technology and scientists had to summon the gods of “Crush and Soak”. This method has been proven for millennia, as people…
Size Selection via Gel Electrophoresis Whether you are using NGS for whole genome sequencing, SNP variant analysis, HLA typing, HLA matching, or even transcriptome or miRNA analysis by RNA-seq, size selection is an extremely important consideration for optimum results. Precise size selection can increase sequencing efficiency, save money and improve genome assemblies, as well as…
Isolating pure DNA is key to many downstream applications for molecular biologists. Isolating large quantities of pure DNA used to be a laborious task. But thanks to commercially available kits, older methods have been streamlined to allow efficient recovery of pure DNA. In this article, I will talk about a method called DNA gel extraction,…
Following on from Part 1, we’ll now take a look at the actual use of geometric probability in stereology, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of this technique. As you’ll know from the introduction (here), stereology looks at the relativity between an object and its sections, while geometric probability allows a researcher to expand…
Check out our rundown of the key features of the most popular reference managers to work out which one will be best for you and your research.
The study of geometric probability in stereology may seem like a large, overwhelming area of focus but, don’t panic, it’s not! In fact, it is a very specific field that is likely to come easy to those that excel in mathematics or science (yes that means you). However, the concept is not one that most…
In Part 1, we looked at diffraction limits and how these can be overcome using Super-Resolution Microscopy techniques. We covered Single Molecule Localization Techniques, Structured Illumination Microscopy and Stimulated Emission Depletion. In this second part, we’ll take a look at Near-Field and Dual Objective Methods as well things to consider before buying a system. Near-field…
So you’ve isolated your DNA or RNA from your favorite sample. And now, if you are anything like me, the first thing you’ll do is scramble to check the quality and concentration of your extract. You have a few different options at your disposal to perform this crucial analysis, which will let you know whether…
Whenever you make up a solution or use a purchased reagent in the lab, you trust the work of a whole army of people and equipment. If any one of those links in the chain has a technical problem or makes a mistake, then your reagent might turn out to be faulty. And that can…
You’ve carefully collected your samples, extracted nucleic acids and made your first set of next-generation sequencing libraries. How are you going to know if the data you get back is any good and whether it will be worth the effort in learning how to do the analysis? Who is to blame? Fortunately, there are several…
If you already spend all day hanging out with other scientists, the last thing you might feel like doing is joining a professional scientific society. With today’s shrinking budgets, you might also start to question whether this line on your CV is worth the membership dues. However, joining societies has many career benefits in addition…
So you want to do meiotic spreads do you? Maybe it’s to check if meiosis is progressing the way it should, or even to look for sites of DNA damage. Whatever the case this technique can be a little tricky at first, but once you learn a few tricks it’s like riding a bicycle- so…
Ribonucleases (RNases). We’ve been giving them a hard time here lately. We’ve been talking about how they are the bane of the lives of researchers who work with RNA. And we’ve told you how to find their weaknesses and shown you a myriad of weapons that you can use to kick their RNase butts. But…
If you want a more efficient, cheaper way to do bacterial transformation, you are definitely going to like this article.
If you’re reading our Microscopy and Imaging Channel here on BitesizeBio, you might have heard about the new techniques which fall under the umbrella of ‘Super-Resolution Microscopy’. In her recent article, Cynthia introduced us to the limits of resolution and how this can be overcome. Question time You may have more questions; In this introduction…
Discover interesting facts about Congo red and it can help us understand Alzheimer’s disease.
Unlike Nick Oswald I think I can multitask in the lab. If I organize my day efficiently and perform lots of experiments and other tasks in parallel, I get more done. But there is a school of thought – the one described in Nick’s article – that says no-one can really multitask, that our brains…
Why do I see a cloud? When you are looking at protein localization within a cell, have you ever wondered why you see a cloud of fluorescence rather that several individual fluorescent points? Well, light microscopy has a theoretical resolution limit of 200 nm. This means that in theory, to resolve two points as being…
You have spent days, if not weeks, at the bench setting up the treatment and control samples for that crucial experiment. You submitted your cDNA library for sequencing and after a few weeks of waiting anxiously you get back a list of differentially expressed genes. Hooray?! Hold on- not quite yet! There is something you…
RNases are like the baddie super-heroes amongst laboratory enzymes. They are omnipotent, destructive and seemingly indestructible. This is because they were created by evil overlords, for the sole purpose making life difficult for the brave scientists who battle every day to produce high quality, intact RNA preps. Ok, I’m joking about the overlords part. But…
Mammalian cell culture can easily deplete grant funds. Sometimes you can alter protocols to use expensive reagents sparingly. Here are a few tips!
Acid-fast stain (AF) is a special staining technique used in the histology lab. Discover which bacteria this stain detects, the history behind it, and how it works.
There is no such thing as “junk” DNA Until recently, vast areas of the genome had been denounced as “junk” DNA, because they do not encode proteins. However, it has become clear that these regions have a large diversity of other functions, from transcriptional and translational regulation to the protection of genes and genome integrity….
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) such as your lab coat and gloves are an essential piece of kit when working in a laboratory; however, it is important to know when it is inappropriate to use PPE. 1) Don’t wear your lab coat, gloves or other PPE in offices or dining areas. They may have become contaminated…
Gomori’s methenamine silver is a special histology stain for detecting fungi. Find out how and why you might want to use this stain in the lab.
You can really tell when Honours Project students start working in the lab on their projects: the pH meter probe is suddenly floating in water and the weighing area is a mess, because nobody had time to explain “the weighing etiquette”. Fret no more! We will spell it out and you can print it out…
You’ll give me an (enzymatic) complex! Following on from Part 1 of this article, let’s start by having a look at the two most popular enzymatic ‘sandwich’ methods; A step ahead of your competition In my opinion gaining an understanding of different detection systems and how they can be applied can give your research an…
MicroRNAs (miRNA) are short, non-coding RNAs involved in post-transcriptional silencing of gene expression. miRNAs can be associated with exosomes and can function as cancer-specific biomarkers. This, coupled with the fact that they are stable in plasma and serum makes them valuable diagnostic tools, as long as they can be reliably isolated from the serum and…
In a recent article, I gave some tips about how to obtain good results with sequencing DNA after bisulfite conversion (it contains some tips that apply to the approach described in this article, too). Bisulfite sequencing is a very useful technique if you want to know the methylation status of every CpG in your genomic…
In my last article, I explained that plasmid DNA recovered from a plasmid prep consists of few different species; supercoiled, nicked, linear and single stranded circular, and how you can distinguish them on a gel. Supercoiled DNA is the desired form of plasmid DNA; it performs better in downstream applications such as automated sequencing and…
In my previous article I covered different immunohistochemical staining techniques at a superficial level. In the following articles I will start to explain these technologies in a bit more detail and in which situations they should be applied. All of the following will involve additional stages when applying them, for example- serum blocking, protein blocking,…
For those of you who print out the results that you have acquired from the Flow Cytometer to stick in your lab book, did you know that inkjet printers and cytometers have a shared history? Flow Cytometry is less than 50 years old and machines today still use some of the same principles as the…
Comparing and measuring gene expression is certainly an integral part of research—gene expression patterns continue to show us how different cell networks are regulated, and point to new biological pathways and possible treatments for disease. But one crucial part of gene expression lies in making sure that differences in gene expression are due to gene…
Alternative splicing is a highly orchestrated process that uses a multitude of regulatory mechanisms. Splicing specificity involves a precise interaction between cis- and trans-acting regulatory elements, and factors that disrupt these interactions can result in aberrant splicing. There are multiple ways in which mutations can affect splicing fidelity: Global analysis of alternative splicing is essential…
Conserved elements are stretches of DNA sequence that are under purifying selection. That means mutations leading to a change of function in this part of the DNA are detrimental to the organism and will not become fixed in the genome, but rather discarded by natural selection. The level of conservation between species gives an idea…
A commonly used technique in epigenetics is Chromatin Immunoprecipitation, or ChIP for short. This technique can show you whether a certain protein (e.g. transcription factor or histone modification) binds to DNA, when in its native conformation, namely chromatin. Insightful, but difficult This information can be very insightful, but difficult to obtain. Most protocols and suggestions…
The ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) is a rapid method used to detect the amount of a protein of interest in clinical and experimental samples. There are a number of ELISA formats to choose from, depending on your research needs. These include direct ELISA, indirect ELISA, competitive ELISA and sandwich ELISA. We have previously covered the…
According to the International Society for Stereology, the area of scientific study encompassed by this term is that which analyzes solids. If that all sounds a bit too much like materials science, then for us microscopists, it’s really about the review of three-dimensional objects (mainly tissues) by making horizontal and vertical incisions. Stereology can be…
In her article How to Get Perfect Protein Transfer in Western Blotting, Emily Crow recommends Coomassie staining your gel after transfer to the membrane to check the quality of the transfer. A good transfer should not leave behind proteins and PVDF membrane, stained by 0.1% Ponceau S in 5% phosphoric acid and destained with water…
The importance of epigenetics in biology is increasingly acknowledged (if you’re not convinced yet, read my crash course). One commonly studied epigenetic mark is CpG methylation: cytosines that are directly followed by a guanine nucleotide (indicated by CpG), can be methylated, unlike non-CpG Cs. Since attachment of a methyl group to a cytosine can affect…
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