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Comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) is a long name for a process that has happily become shortened and vastly more productive in the past few years. It uses microarrays of oligonucleotide probes to examine things such as copy number variation (CNV), amplifications, and deletions in genetic...

It used to be – back in the days of early cell culture, when things were simpler – that there were cell lines (that had to be tended to and passaged), and there were primary cultures (that were finicky and...

Multiplexing your real-time or quantitative PCR reactions would save time and work – but are you up for the challenge? The resources are out there to help you tackle this adventure, and you won’t be alone. “The general increase in...

Copy number analysis is beginning to supplement or replace older forms of genomic analysis such as SNP analysis and microarray analysis. New discoveries in the field of gene copy number have revealed that in many cases the number of copies of a gene may be more significant than the presence or absence of...

The central principles of protein electrophoresis have not changed in the decades since its inception. However, improvements and refinements continue to make it one of the most important techniques in the life sciences. Two-dimensional (2D) protein electrophoresis remains...

Plant biologists are now taking advantage of many of the new molecular tools that have evolved through work on animal species—with exciting results. Plant biologists who rely on ...

When it comes to animal research, there's no getting around one simple fact: It's expensive. Between care, housing, and feeding, live animals can take a serious bite out of a researchers' bottom line. That's especially true if that researcher is...

Ten years after the first draft human genome was announced, genomic science is finally beginning to pay dividends in the healthcare arena. A few examples: In November 2009, Richard Lifton of Yale University applied "next-gen" DNA sequencing to correctly diagnose a patient, thought possibly to suffer from a renal condition such as Bartter syndrome, with

It's been nearly 30 years since W. Neal Burnette first coined the term "Western blotting" to describe the electrophoretic transfer of protein gels onto nitrocellulose membranes¹, and in many ways the technique remains exactly the same. The gel transfer "sandwich" Burnette describes in detail, for instance, would be...

High resolution melt (HRM) analysis is one of those “why didn’t I think of that?” special twists on basic nucleotide behavior during PCR, in which melting curves are compared to detect sequence differences. HRM analysis is seeing a boom of interest recently. “HRM is emerging so rapidly that it is...

Because of increases in stem cell research, the market for CO₂ incubators has become more interesting—and more discerning. Users are demanding increased...

Not that long ago, analyzing the phosphorylation of a given cellular protein could best be described as painful. If a researcher wanted to know whether a particular protein's phosphorylation status changed in response...

Who would have thought that the humble nucleic acids described decades ago by Watson and Crick would one day be eyed as therapeutic or diagnostic agents world-wide? With customized modifications, today’s oligonucleotides are doing more than probing blots in the lab. And in many cases, buying is cheaper than...

Immunofluorescence has become such an important tool for biologists that one can now find it in almost any area, helping to illuminate the answers to questions big and small. Challenges for the technique include getting smaller (labeling distinct molecules) and more...

If you want an inkling of how hot the microRNA field is, just look at miRBase. In April...

Apoptosis – programmed cell death – is a cell’s way of politely kicking the bucket when its time has come. A vital part of nearly all normal processes, apoptosis is so important to the

The use of human tissue in the life sciences is hardly new. In 1951, a researcher at Johns Hopkins University created the first human cell line with samples taken from an unwitting cancer patient. Named HeLa cells, they went on to serve crucial roles in the development of the polio vaccine and in the study of many diseases. These days, human tissue research is more important than ever.

It's one thing to work in a research lab: cobbling funds together from research grants, conducting experiments in 96-well plates using stand-alone benchtop equipmentequipment, and meticulously tweaking reagent concentrations, incubation times, and column densities. But as R turns to D and it's time to scale up and start producing product, a host of other considerations come into play.

Holding back the power of our immune systems is no small feat—and that’s just what regulatory T cells (Tregs) do. Their ability to suppress unwanted immune responses makes them one of...

If you've ever worked with cell cultures, you probably know the agony of manual cell counting. It's a fact of life in the cell culture hood: Before you can run an experiment, you need to know...

Introducing new genes into your cells, or silencing others, is easier each year as the technology and reagents for cellular have steadily improved. And the improvement shows...

It really is science, right—not magic? Finding the best conditions for your PCR protocols can be frustrating and time-consuming, but it is becoming...

Is the most frequently used piece of lab equipment also the least considered? In a sense, yes. No hardware gets more of a workout in molecular biology labs...

The power of nuclear receptors should not be underestimated. However, we have yet to understand fully how these fascinating molecules work, though we know they are crucial for many important developmental processes, as well as...

Since the immunoassay was first described more than half a century ago it has become a mainstay in clinical and research labs alike. Innovations in...

The classical view of cancer was of a progressive series of mutations conferring growth advantages, such that the cell is no longer constrained by the biochemical limitations of other, normal cells. No growth...

Don't have time to pour your own agarose gel, make your own buffers, and wait more than an hour for the results? You're in luck, because nucleic acid electrophoresis is getting easier every day. Using precast gels, all-in-one kits, and even...

The twin goals of disaster preparedness and conservation have inspired a growing movement toward greener and more energy efficient laboratories. Green lab initiatives include more efficient instrumentation, green building design, and the use of nontoxic...

Real-time PCR, or quantitative PCR (qPCR), quickly became an important evaluative tool for researchers needing to quantify the product of a PCR reaction – yet it is an unfinished technique. Despite its widespread use, or perhaps because of it, qPCR is still...

The once onerous lab task of cell separation has finally turned a corner, according to...