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Kirsten Hogg

Kirsten gained a PhD in Reproductive Biology from the University of Edinburgh.

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Articles by Kirsten Hogg

An Essential Toolbox for qPCR Users

An Essential Toolbox for qPCR Users

By Kirsten Hogg | December 3, 2014

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…

Understand and Troubleshoot PCR with The BitesizeBio Guide to PCR

Understand and Troubleshoot PCR with The BitesizeBio Guide to PCR

By Kirsten Hogg | November 5, 2014

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…

Your Supervisor Wants You to Apply for Funding

Your Supervisor Wants You to Apply for Funding

By Kirsten Hogg | October 27, 2014

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…

How Bisulfite Pyrosequencing Works

How Bisulfite Pyrosequencing Works

By Kirsten Hogg | February 10, 2014

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…

A Primer for Designing Degenerate Primers

A Primer for Designing Degenerate Primers

By Kirsten Hogg | February 3, 2014

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…

Perfecting that Lay Summary

Perfecting that Lay Summary

By Kirsten Hogg | September 25, 2013

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…

Getting the most out of your human DNA methylation studies

Getting the most out of your human DNA methylation studies

By Kirsten Hogg | September 2, 2013

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…

Scientific manuscripts: what constitutes authorship?

Scientific manuscripts: what constitutes authorship?

By Kirsten Hogg | June 17, 2013

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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