DNA / RNA Manipulation and Analysis
How to Make Your Own Chemically Competent Cells
We’ll show you how to make a DIY stock of chemically competent E. coli, the workhorse in the molecular biology laboratory.
Read MoreXeno Nucleic Acids: Essential Tools in Synthetic Biology and Your Research
We’re all familiar with DNA and RNA. But have you heard of xeno nucleic acids (XNAs)? Read on to find out how they can be applied in biological research, and how you can start using them in your experiments.
Read MoreHow DNA Extraction Kits Work in the Lab
Understanding how DNA extraction kits work is the key to troubleshooting your extraction issues.
Read MorePractical Application of Phenol-Chloroform Extraction
Are you struggling with your phenol-chloroform extraction or just looking to maximize the nucleic acid you retrieve? Then read our expert advice to improve your technique.
Read MoreThe Basics: How Phenol Extraction of DNA Works
Phenol extraction is a common method for removing proteins from nucleic acids. Discover how phenol extraction of DNA works.
Read MoreThe Luciferase Reporter Assay: How it Works
Discover how the luciferase reporter assay works and how to get starting using it in your research.
Read MoreEssential Factors for Successful Gateway Cloning
Want to use Gateway cloning or having trouble using this technology? Find out how it works and get helpful tips to increase your success.
Read MoreWhat is Alternative Splicing, and Why Is It Important?
Need to brush up on your alternative splicing knowledge? We’re here to help with our guide to this splicing mechanism.
Read MoreThe Three Ts of Introducing Foreign DNA: Transfection, Transduction, and Transformation
Do you know your transfections from your transductions? We explain the differences between three of the most commonly used ways of introducing foreign DNA.
Read MoreDNA Precipitation: Ethanol vs. Isopropanol
Discover what you need for successful DNA precipitation and how to choose between ethanol and isopropanol solvents.
Read MoreLab Basics: How Alkaline Lysis Works
Alkaline lysis for plasmid isolation? That’s like the ABCs in a molecular biology lab. Read this detailed article to understand the process behind this common technique.
Read MoreHow to Identify Supercoils, Nicks and Circles in DNA Plasmid Preps
Why do you get three bands when running uncut plasmid DNA on agarose gels. Discover the answer and how it can help improve your DNA plasmid preps.
Read MoreWhich Type of Ethanol Should I Use?
Want to know more about ethanol grades commonly used in the lab? We help you make sense of your flammables cabinet with our rundown of the ethanol grades typically used in molecular biology, as well as some important rules for how to use them correctly.
Read More5 Ways to Clean Up A DNA Sample
Are you struggling with your DNA clean-up? Then check out our top five methods so you can pick the best option for your experiments.
Read MoreEthanol Precipitation of DNA and RNA: How it Works
Using ethanol precipitation to isolate or concentrate your nucleic acids? Find out how this routinely used technique works, and get tips to produce the best results.
Read MoreHow to Get a Picture-Perfect Agarose Gel
Check out our agarose gel hacks for troubleshooting your blurry or uneven bands, and tips for getting picture-perfect agarose gel images every time.
Read MorePreparing Metaphase Spreads: The Breakdown on Broken-Down Cells
A quick look at the first steps of metaphase spreads – the break down on breaking down your cells and the factors to keep in mind.
Read MoreFive Ways to Modify Your siRNA for Improved RNAi
Want to increase siRNA stability and efficiency? Read on to learn five chemical modifications that will help.
Read MoreIsolating Nucleic Acids From Arabidopsis Seeds (And Other Tough Seeds)
While DNA and RNA extraction is a pretty common technique, it isn’t always the easiest. Read on to learn some top tips on how to successfully extract nucleic acids from even the toughest samples, like Arabidopsis seeds.
Read MoreHow to Isolate DNA from Mitochondria: An Energetic Guide
Mitochondrial DNA isolation can be time-consuming and laborious. Find out how to minimise the time needed for its extraction, while ensuring fantastic results.
Read MoremiRNA Expression: How to Choose the Right Profiling Platform
When it comes to profiling miRNAs there are lots of platforms available. We discuss the pros and cons of various miRNA profiling methods to help you choose the right one for your needs.
Read MoreT4 DNA Ligase: The Only Ligase You’ll Ever Need?
T4 DNA ligase is the swiss army knife of ligases, but it can’t always do it all. Find out what it’s good at and the alternatives available for the things it struggles with.
Read MoreTips on Restriction Digests: Designing a Restriction Screen
Restriction digests are the cornerstone of many techniques. Here are some great tips on setting up and troubleshooting them.
Read MoreYe Olde Antibiotic Plates: Stability of Antibiotic Agar Plates
After a late night transformation you realise you have forgotten to make any plates. Should you use the old stash of amp plates you found in the back of the cold room?
Read MoreWhat’s The Problem With Ampicillin Selection?
Resistance to the antibiotic ampicillin is commonly used as a selection marker for plasmids in gene cloning and protein expression in E.coli and other bacteria. While it can be incredibly useful tool, there can be problems using this selection marker that you need to be aware of if if you plan on using it. This…
Read MoreA Beginner’s Guide to How Blunt-End Cloning Works
Blunt and sticky might sound dull and dirty but knowing how these different cloning methods work is important when choosing which method to use. Here we give you a guide to how blunt-end cloning works. Blunt-end cloning is the cloning of DNA fragments containing no unpaired bases at the 5’ and 3’ prime ends (i.e.…
Read MoreAntibiotics Used in Molecular Biology
Antibiotics are used in a wide range of techniques in molecular biology including molecular cloning and are important for treating pesky mycoplasma contamination in cell cultures. They can also be used to maximize your plasmid yields by reducing protein synthesis, in certain circumstances. The aim of this post is to provide an easy reference to…
Read MoreTop Tips for Troubleshooting In Vitro Transcription
The Phobia of RNases My first experience of troubleshooting in vitro transcription came when I was synthesizing RNA In-Situ Probes for the first time. A lab mate ominously warned me that I had just returned to lab after a bout of flu and that meant I’m a walking talking factory of RNases. I went ahead…
Read MoreFaster Ligations: PEGing down the Secret
Overnight ligations are inconvenient — especially when they fail. Luckily, there’s a straightforward way to faster DNA ligations. This article highlights the secret ingredient to faster ligation reactions and offers some tips and caveats on its use. For a general overview of DNA ligations, see here and here. Buy a Quick Ligation Kit The most…
Read MoreHow to Set up Your Elution Experiment
What do DNA mini preps and protein immunoprecipitation experiments have in common? They start differently, but they end with the same, critical stage – elution. But what exactly is elution, and what is the point? The Terminology First, let’s start with some basic terminology: Elution – extracting one material from another by washing with a…
Read MoreCPEC– a Quick and Inexpensive Cloning Strategy
Cloning Strategies – a Whole Lot of Options to Choose Molecular cloning has come a long way from simple restriction digestion-ligation cloning strategies to a large number of highly efficient alternatives. Broadly classified, cloning techniques can be divided as sequence dependent and sequence independent strategies. Sequence-dependent strategies are based on restriction digestion-ligation techniques or site-specific…
Read MoreShow Your Molecular TALEN(T)
Introduction Did you know that the idea of using genetic engineering to ameliorate certain human diseases was viewed as ‘science fiction’ only 10 short years ago? While cell mutagenesis studies and genetic knockout experiments were feasible before genetic engineering, they were not very reliable. Indeed, due to the random and imprecise nature of these older…
Read MoreNGS Target Enrichment Strategies
Next-generation sequencing (NGS) has ushered in a new era of understanding of both the inner workings and the function of the genome. NGS allows researchers to look at traits—including diseases—that are linked to differences or mutations in an individual’s genes. Since only about 1% of the human genome constitutes genes that code for proteins, several…
Read MoreThe EMSA – Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks
Probing Nucleic Acid-Protein Interactions with EMSA The electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) is a powerful technique for detecting specific-binding of nucleic acid-protein complexes. Over the past 30 years, EMSA has been the “go to assay” to investigate the qualitative interactions between nucleic acids (DNA or RNA) and nucleic-acid binding proteins. Through the use of radio-labeled…
Read MoreIsolating Bacterial RNA from Blood
For many decades, the only way to detect sepsis – bacterial growth in blood – was isolating the bacteria and growing bacterial colonies on a special medium. This was done by first spinning down the blood, which brought the blood cells and bacteria into the pellet. The pellet was spread on a blood agar plate…
Read MoreHow (and Why) to Label Nucleic Acids
Have you ever wished you could snag individual strands of DNA or RNA with a lasso? Or look at them one by one, figuring out exactly where they are or what they are doing? Fortunately, there are techniques that exist to label nucleic acids for their visualization and purification! Nucleic acids can be labeled at…
Read MoreThe Beginner’s Guide to Reading Plasmid Maps
Very often plasmid maps, especially historical ones that are hand-drawn by a long-forgotten PhD student, are a puzzle. What are these arrows and boxes? Where do I start? Don’t worry, we have a crash course introduction into deciphering plasmid maps. Familiarizing Yourself with Your Plasmid of Interest Let’s start with a classic plasmid: pBR3221. It…
Read MoreRNAseq Library Preparation: From Cells to cDNA
RNAseq libraries, also called whole transcriptome shotgun sequencing libraries, provide a snapshot of cellular processes. This allows the researcher to gain information regarding changes in transcriptome in response to environmental changes, during disease, or after a drug application. RNAseq libraries also allow for the detection of mRNA splicing variants and SNPs. RNAseq libraries have virtually…
Read MorePicking the Right DNA Isolation Kit for Your Application
If you plan to work with purified DNA in the lab, it’s likely that you will use a commercial DNA extraction kit to isolate and purify your DNA of interest. With so many types of kits available, it can be a major challenge to choose the best one to use when working with an unfamiliar…
Read MoreAre You In(to) Situ? – Putting Together Your First RNAscope® Assay
You are thinking of trying out RNAscope®. After all, RNAscope® holds promise for increasing the sensitivity and specificity of your in situ hybridization. Yet, getting started can be a little overwhelming with the numerous kits and reagents available in the RNAscope product line. Here’s an overview of your options to help you navigate to the…
Read More