Editor's note: This is the second of a three-part series on tools for core facilities. The last installment in the series, on peptide synthesizers, will appear in the Sept. 16 issue. As the biotech revolution has exploded, so too has the market for oligonucleotides. And as the number of labs in need of these tools has grown, so has the science of their synthesis. In response, oligonucleotides, which are short, synthetic RNA or DNA sequences, have gone from luxury item status to that of a standar

For many researchers, the process of acquiring custom oligonucleotides has never been more challenging. There are simply too many choices. For example, the increasing variety of specialty oligos, used in tasks ranging from diagnostics to sequencing, can make ordering a grueling and time-consuming task. And with a pool of more than 200 suppliers worldwide, choosing the right company for the job can be equally daunting. To help scientists obtain the best oligo for the task at hand, Seattle-based D

Remarkable advances in gel documentation technology in the last 15 years have made the quantification and identification of protein and DNA faster, easier, and more readily available for a broad range of analyses. Fuzzy bands, precious single-copy pictures, and eyeballed judgments are quickly becoming things of the past, replaced by digital imaging and fast computer analysis. The latest imaging systems can accommodate a variety of gels and staining techniques while accurately and precisely reco

The precise molecular recognition event of nucleic acid hybridization is fundamental to molecular biology. Traditionally, probes are tagged with fluorescent or radioactive labels and hybridized to a sample. Unbound probe is removed via a dilution or digestion step. This allows the investigator to quantify the amount of bound probe but simultaneously disrupts the equilibrium state of the hybridization, preventing the use of this technique in real-time or in vivo. Molecular beacons, single-stran

Suppliers of Whole-organism cDNA Libraries Suppliers of Tissue-specific cDNA Libraries The questions of gene function, interaction, and regulation are central to the science of molecular biology. Despite the myriad of new technologies, products, and techniques produced by the genomics revolution, some old standards remain just as useful as ever. One such technology is the cDNA (complementary DNA) library. The sheer number of companies offering premade and custom cDNA libraries and products th

Pierce Chemical's Seize X Kit Researchers who need to easily and accurately isolate a protein target from a crude sample frequently do so using immunoprecipitation (IP). The new Seize™ X Immunoprecipitation kits introduced by Pierce Chemical of Rockford, Ill., now offer improvements to this classic technique that enhance protein recovery and make SDS-PAGE analysis less confusing. These enhancements result in an IP method that offers better protein recovery without antibody contamination a

Suppliers of Microdialysis Equipment World Precision Instrument's UltraMicroPump II microsyringe pump. Microdialysis enables researchers to probe the mind's molecular architecture to determine how complex behaviors and memories are produced and how bodily functions are regulated.1 As a method to monitor chemicals in the body's extracellular fluids, microdialysis has been most widely used in the neurosciences, and thanks to advances in technol-ogy, is getting easier. Applications include studie

Boston Probes' Micro Dx Probe in a FISH assay Molecular biologists who happen upon the Boston Probes Web site might grin at what seems, at first glance, to be an apparent typo. "Partner with the Leader in PNA Technology," the site announces conspicuously. But there is no mistake. PNA (peptide nucleic acid) molecules are exciting and widely studied synthetic compounds with unique qualities and broad potential applications. With the recent release of its first commercial products, Boston Probes I

In the rapidly widening arena of functional genomics, a few key players dominate the lab tools game. Perhaps the most prominent is the DNA microarray. This robust tool allows researchers to examine the expression of hundreds, even thousands, of genes at once. In these arrays, carefully organized patches of either complementary DNA (cDNA) clones or oligonucleotides are robotically deposited on a fixed surface. Researchers use labeled probes to locate areas of gene expression, tackling questions o