Articles by Amy Francis

Life Technologies' MAX Efficiency DH5a Competent Cells now guard against infection by bacteriophage T5 In the past, a researcher may have lost an Escherichia coli culture to a phage infection and just chalked it up to a failed transformation or inoculation. According to Heather Lustig, marketing manager for Life Technologies of Rockville, Md., bacteriophage contamination didn't really become a major concern until genome centers began sequencing large numbers of clones in parallel. Whereas good

Genomic Solutions' GeneTAC G3 Productivity Tool With the sequencing stage of genomics research winding down, the less defined phase of assigning function to gene products is picking up speed. Because a multitude of functional genomics approaches is being explored, researchers will need an arsenal of new tools to make headway. The GeneTAC G3 Productivity Tool from Genomic Solutions of Ann Arbor, Mich., is a multifunctional, benchtop tool that provides the flexibility needed to address the next se

Photodisc Although President Bill Clinton surely had something in mind during his 2000 State of the Union address when he asked the nation to "celebrate our diversity," insights into human diversity at the molecular level are promising to speed drug discovery and revolutionize medicine to mark- edly improve human health. Individuals differ at one in 1,000 base pairs, which adds up to a whopping number of human genetic variations when applied to the roughly three billion base pairs of the human g

Photo: Jeff MillerTomas A Prolla Editor's Note: To keep up with topical research trends, LabConsumer continues to address various aspects of microarray technology in 2000. "Array of Options" (May 29, 2000) described the features of commercially available systems for arraying, scanning, and analyzing microarrays, and an upcoming issue (Sept. 4, 2000) will profile the growing variety of premade arrays for various applications. To gain further access to this burgeoning field, LabConsumer entered th

Nitrile Glove Comparison Chart Survey Results Summary Photo: Larry HandAACR participants donned nitrile gloves for a LabConsumer survey. It started with an itch. Dan Suich had been working in the lab for about a year when it struck. His itchy hands eventually became painful and started to bleed. Suich suffers from an allergy to latex in the gloves meant to protect him. According to numerous studies, approximately 10 percent of health care workers experience negative reactions to latex gloves.

Plant Cell Culture Reagents Photo by Harry F. Holloway, CCP and Jeff McAdams. Courtesy of Carolina Biological Supply Co.Tobacco callus serves as the starting material for cell culture. The culture of plant cells began as a method to simplify studies of plant biology, but applications of this technology have become big business. Many researchers are genetically engineering plants to be hardier or more nutritious. Others want to harness the plants' ability to produce beneficial compounds at will,

Melanoma cells stained with AIM melanoma (HMB45) strips Losing sight of the "big picture" concerns many researchers embroiled in running gels and performing assays. Visualizing a protein of interest in intact tissue sections can reconnect studies to the physiological realm and complement other types of data. However, immunohistochemical antigen-detection techniques can be daunting for the uninitiated. In October 1999, The Binding Site of San Diego, released the AIM (Antibody Impregnated Membrane

Ever feel stuck in a rut, relying on the same old-fashioned techniques as a matter of tradition? Many researchers find themselves in this position for a simple reason--keeping up with the latest techniques takes effort. Combing the literature for the latest and greatest or trying to troubleshoot your own advances can take valuable time away from data collection. Some of the popular protocol guides try to stay current by sending updated pages to replace old sections. However, the new pages seem t

Nobody Beats the Wizard From now until March 31, 2000, Promega is offering a reduced price on its Wizard® Plus SV Miniprep kits. Plasmids can be purified using either a microcentrifuge or a vacuum manifold and used directly in a variety of molecular biology applications including fluorescent sequencing. Normally $225 for 250 preps and $230 with vacuum adapters, the reduced prices are $190 and $195, respectively. Promega, (800) 356-9526, www.promega.com Excellent Elution Labnet's Exelutor p

The MACSelect Kk.II selects successfully transfected cells Low transfection efficiencies can obscure the results of even the most carefully planned experiment. Selection systems for enrichment of successfully transfected cells can help, but in the past they've relied on cotransfection of a selectable marker and your gene of interest (goi); this method only works when both plasmids enter the same cell. Miltenyi Biotec recently improved upon this by launching its MACSelect Kk.II Transfected Cell S

Combichem Software A new portal site for Combinatorial Chemistry was released in February 2000, providing up-to-date information of interest to researchers in this growing field (www.combichem.net). Combinatorial Chemistry Meetings & Symposia A small sampling of upcoming conferences focused on combinatorial chemistry techniques and applications: Research Perspectives in Computational & Structural Chemistry March 1-3, 2000, Isle of Palms, S.C. www.netsci.org/Resources/Meetings/charleston00-co

Ever gotten a great deal on a 1970s Charlie's Angels lunchbox on eBay and wondered why you couldn't do as well on an HPLC unit for your lab? With the September 1999 launch of BioBid.com, great deals on used lab equipment are now available at the click of a mouse. The dynamic nature of the biotech industry leads to a large number of surplus instruments and perfectly functional equipment collecting dust. It is not unusual for companies to start and abandon a project in a very short time. But wit

Imagine cloning a gene into several different expression vectors without restriction enzymes or ligations. Invitrogen's Echo Cloning System promises just that. Based on the Univector Plasmid-fusion System developed by Steve Elledge at Baylor College of Medicine, the Echo System avoids having to PCR amplify and sequence an insert every time it is subcloned into a new vector.1 The newly released Echo System combines Invitrogen's proven TOPO® Cloning System for five-minute cloning of PCR produ

Graphic: Cathleen Heard Because most drugs undergo development and approval for seven to 10 years before coming to market, researchers are always looking for ways to speed the process. Preclinical drug testing involves both in vitro and animal assays that assess efficacy and potential side effects to predict how the agent will affect humans. Drug toxicity can result in such things as cancer and birth defects, so government agencies have set forth strict guidelines for toxicological testing. In p

Turn the Tide on Antibody Screening with Surf-Blot Idea Scientific's Surf-Blot The Surf-Blot Antibody Screening System eliminates the need to cut blots into strips in order to probe with multiple antibodies. A blot is produced as usual and then clamped into the Surf-Blot. The apparatus forms channels on the surface of the blot in which to carry out antibody incubations. After rinsing, the blot is removed from the Surf-Blot, and signal visualization can be performed on the intact blot without lin