Ready. Lab Consumer gladly accepted an invitation to the University of California, San Diego, where graduate students demonstrated Bio-Rad's versatile Helios Gene Gun System. The Helios Gene Gun System (commercially introduced in late 1996) allows rapid and direct transfer of DNA- or RNA-coated gold microcarriers into a range of targets under in vivo conditions. According to Bio-Rad Program Manager James Wong, "Applications of this product are turning out to be very diverse. Researchers have bombarded aquatic organisms, such as diatoms and squid, and they are even looking at the possibility of cattle immunization."
Aim. Of particular interest to graduate students in Dr. Jerold Chun's Department of Pharmacology and Neurosciences laboratory was the introduction of Green Fluorescent Protein-labeled plasmid to the telencephalons of mice. Sample preparation was surprisingly quick. After a few minutes of spinning and prepping to ensure uniform distribution of nucleic acid on gold particles, the prep tube was ...
