Date: March 1, 1999Caspase Substrates and Inhibitors, Apoptosis ProductsCast of Characters Apoptosis is no less a hot topic than it was a year ago when LabConsumer first looked at the available tools for studying this complex phenomenon.1 In that intervening time, roughly 20 papers per day have been published on apoptosis, an issue of Science devoted to apoptosis has been published,2 and countless new pieces have been added to the puzzle. To get an idea of the complexity of apoptosis in higher

System speeds up the pace of sequencing Schematic of New England Biolab's Genome Priming System Transposons are nothing new to molecular biologists--they have been used since the early 1970s for creating mutations, as well as for moving sequences from place to place in vivo. In the Genome Priming System (GPS™), New England BioLabs (NEB) has developed a novel, in vitro application of transposons for the production of sequencing templates. GPS replaces primer walking, nested deletions, an

a clear, comprehensive guide to lab life Author: Laura DeFrancesco Date: February 15, 1999Excerpt from At The Bench Book cover illustration from At The Bench Being a newcomer to a laboratory can be a daunting and, at times, frustrating experience. And while it is the rare grad student who hasn't gotten her hands wet in a laboratory, entering into the profession as a grad student or research technician is different--the stakes, the expectations, the demands are all raised a notch. What Kathy B

We have learned that several software packages were omitted from our profile on DNA sequencing software published late last year1. A summary of those packages follows: GeneTool™, a product of the Canadian company BioTools offers a single environment in which to search proprietary databases, probe sequence homologies, access functional information, align multiple sequences, and predict the secondary structure of proteins. GeneTool's graphical user interface operates the same across all ma

The Scientist 13[2]:18, Jan. 18, 1999

Proteomes and 2D Gel Apparatus Providers Big science has moved on to proteins. With the new brand of science termed proteomics--named by the Australians Marc Wilkins and Keith Williams to mean the "set of PROTEins encoded by the genOME"--the push is on around the globe to produce a complete description of a cell/tissue/organism in terms of the proteins produced. The challenge is all the greater because the expressed protein pattern changes with time and environment--responding to developmenta

Gel Microdrop System from One Cell Systems can ferret out rare protein secreting cells Imagine, if you will, a single cell suspended in a drop. Now picture that same cell secreting a protein, say an immunoglobulin. Now envision that secreting cell embedded in a matrix that binds the protein as it leaves the cell, and you have the idea of the microdrop hybridoma selection system available from One Cell Systems. A modification of the microdrop technology described in 1991 by James Weaver, Associ

Date: September 14, 1998Tables 1-4 While at one time RNA isolation was a painstaking endeavor, requiring careful sterilization of reagents, treatment of equipment, and lengthy centrifugation--often stretching over several days--kits for total RNA purification now provide rapid protocols with RNase-free reagents that can cut prep time down to under an hour. As important as saving time, these quick, often single-step protocols also reduce the possibility of degradation, always a concern with RNA

Date: June 22, 1998 Insect Cell Culture Media, Suppliers of Primary Cell Culture Media Advantages for Protein Expression Studies Since the mid-1950s cultures of insects--cockroaches, fruit flies, and leafhoppers, to name a few--have been the object of quiet study by physiologists and cell biologists. But along came genetic engineering and suddenly insect cultures have been put in the spotlight since they provide advantages over both bacterial and mammalian systems for recombinant protein prod

Stem cells are increasingly finding uses in both basic and clinical research. While traditionally of interest to those studying the regulation of growth and differentiation, stem cells are now being used in some of the hottest areas of research--in the construction of transgenic animals and vehicles in gene therapy and transplantation studies. These applications all require the culturing of stem cells outside the animal for some period of time, a task that is particularly challenging. As is the

Date: May 25, 1998 Author: Laura DeFrancesco Charts How many different ways are there to isolate messenger RNA (mRNA)? You can bind it to oligo(dT) cellulose in a slurry, bind it to oligo(dT) on columns, bind it to oligo(dT) attached to latex beads, or bind it to oligo(dT) on magnetic particles. Get the picture? Oligo(dT) is clearly the key to mRNA isolations. And why is that? Considering that mRNA is only one to two percent of the total RNA of a cell, and to make matters worse, is heterogeneo

Differential display, invented in 1992 by Liang and Pardee, ( Science, 257:967-71, 1992) has, in the few years since its description, become the premier technique for studying gene expression. Accordingly, a number of companies have jumped into the market with kits and tools for using this technology. The beauty of this method is that it enables side-by-side comparisons of complex expression patterns from as many samples as can fit on a gel, and eliminates the need for what can be at times tedi