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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.
Western blotting is a common lab technique used to detect and analyze proteins. It also happens to be a really long and complicated procedure, with many steps along the way that are easy to mess up. How do you make sure that your Western blot is successful? Avoid the following five ways to destroy your…
In Part 1 of this series, we began our journey into the fascinating world of enzymology. We looked at the most basic concepts of what an enzyme is and the incredible jobs it can do. In Part 2 of “Working with Enzymes,” I will look at some things that you should keep in mind to…
Concentrating a protein sample is one of those tasks that sounds simple, but choosing the wrong technique could ruin your precious sample. Whether you’re prepping for a downstream assay, trying to hit a working concentration, or just trying to shrink an unwieldy volume, you have options. In this guide, we’ll walk through three of the…
Protein kinases and protein phosphatases phosphorylate and dephosphorylate a plethora of proteins. They are responsible for regulating the majority of cellular activities. Because of their importance, they can seem intimidating to tackle as a research project. At the end of the day however, kinases and phosphatases are- simply put- enzymes. Therefore, you can standard enzyme…
If you purify proteins expressed in E. coli, then you’re probably familiar with this scenario: you come in bright and early in the morning and inoculate your large flasks of media with the overnight culture, start shaking them at 37 °C, and now you wait. And watch. And wait some more. You can’t venture far,…
Chris Dieni wraps up his series on the Basics of Protein Phosphorylation with this final part on further reading and resources available.
Chris Dieni explores the promiscuous yet intriguing nature of protein phosphatases
Diving deeper into protein kinases, explore the vast realm of known kinases, their amino acid targets, and the intricate process of target selection.
In the previous article in this series, we looked at the major players involved in protein phosphorylation: protein kinases, protein phosphatases, and target proteins. This time, we’ll glance over some of the tools that we can use to study various aspects of protein phosphorylation, focussing on a few I’ve personally come across. 1. Tools for…
The focus of my grad studies and postdoctoral research has been the analysis of proteins regulated by reversible protein phosphorylation. However, the number of unique facets in which protein phosphorylation can be studied is astounding, and is diverse as any niche of the biosciences. This article is the first in a series that will give…
If you have ever attempted to load a SDS-PAGE gel only to miss the well, stab the divider, and then watch helplessly as your sample squirts off into the wrong well, then this tip is for you. The fortunate among us are able to use pre-cast gels with the wells outlined on the gel plate,…
Low yield in cell-free protein synthesis is usually fixable… if you know which part of the system is failing. The most common culprits are easy to address: template purity, transcription or translation inhibitors, and potassium and magnesium concentration. Check those first. But when the basics are in order and yield is still poor, the problem…
Cell-free protein synthesis (aka In vitro translation) refers to protein production in vitro using lysates generated that provide the cellular machinery necessary for synthesis. The lysates can be of bacterial or eukaryotic origin. It is a useful alternative to in vivo synthesis for generating protein for the study of things like: So what are the…
If you use a spec to measure cell density, you may be making a very common mistake and taking inaccurate measurements as a result. Specs are often used for measuring the density of suspension cultures, but the mistake that many people make is to record the OD given by the spec as an absolute value….
You are not alone. Everyone makes a hash of their protein gel sometimes but this resource can help you work out what went wrong, and feel better for seeing gels even worse than yours.
This is the story of how one of the most famous and quirky naming conventions in biology came into being.
An introduction to the Monash protein folding database, which contains protocols for refolding over 600 different proteins from inclusion bodies.
In the early 1950’s so many new enzymes were being discovered in the burgeoning field of biochemistry that enzyme nomenclature was in danger of getting out of hand. With no guidelines on how to name enzymes, researchers simply chose their own. Some enzymes were given names, like diaphorase or Zwischenferment, that conveyed nothing about the…
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