DNA / RNA Manipulation and Analysis
Multiple Fragment Ligation: The Why and How
You may be familiar with standard single fragment ligations, but did you know you can ligate multiple fragments into your vector all at the same time! Discover how to perform multiple fragment ligation, including the different methods and troubleshooting tips for when things go wrong.
Read MoreWhat is Touchdown PCR? A Primer and 5 Easy Tips For Success
Got non-specific PCR amplification? You need touchdown PCR! Discover what it is, how it works, and get 5 top tips for performing touchdown PCR.
Read More5 Ways to Destroy your Agarose Gel and How to Avoid Them!
Pouring and running an agarose gel should be a simple and routine procedure, but there are a surprising number of ways to destroy your agarose gel.
Read MoreThe qPCR Standard Curve: The Key to Good qPCR Data
Can’t be bothered doing a qPCR standard curve? Find out why it’s important to getting great results and how to do it.
Read MoreDNA Ligation: How it Works & 6 Top Tips
Understanding the basic (and simple!) chemistry behind DNA ligation will help you get better DNA ligation results. Learn all about it here.
Read MoreHow UV Light Damages DNA and the Havoc it Can Cause to Your Experiments
Learn how UV radiation causes DNA mutations and discover more about the mechanisms underlying skin cancer, as well as the detrimental effects that UV light can have on our DNA-based experiments.
Read MoreBetter Plasmid Purification: 11 Reasons Your Plasmid Yield is Low
Are your plasmid preps giving your poor yields? We’ve got 11 reasons that might be causing it and how to fix them.
Read MoreTotal RNA Extraction: Easy Methods for Getting High-Purity RNA
Discover ways to perform total RNA extraction from TRIzol to kit-based and even old-school methods.
Read MoreHow 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 More