LIBRARY SHOPPING


To obtain a DNA library is like getting your hands on a bagel or a pizza: It's easier to buy one than it is to assemble the ingredients to make your own. "Libraries are difficult to make: Most scientists only make a library once or twice in their careers," and perfecting library-making detracts from other activities, says Lani San Mateo, technical service representative at Clontech Laboratories Inc. in Palo Alto, Calif. Clontech's extensive collection of libraries includes a genomic human YAC library, human eDNA libraries from different brain regions, and libraries of the chicken gizzard, liver, lung, spleen, eye, and brain. If a researcher's needs aren't met by these, or standard offerings from organisms as diverse as mink and monkey, kangaroo and fungi, custom libraries can be delivered in two or three weeks.

Prefab libraries benefit the evolutionary work of Anders Blomquist and colleagues at Sweden's Uppsala University...

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