...faster kinetics. The opsin ChETA, for example, is a ChR2 opsin mutated to have faster off kinetics and allow...set of tools therefore depends on what you are looking to study. Figure 1: A schematic showing the...receptors in the brain. One way to address this is by working with organisms with light accessible brains, such...

...and you are smart, you can be a good manager. The kind of smarts and the type of skills that it takes to... from being included in organizational decision-making. It is imperative that employees are thanked for...manager keeps these factors in mind at all times when making decisions, assignments and polices. Sometimes the...priorities for advancement in science Have their own working schedules and may not necessarily be comfortable...

...persuing milestones and working hard. Being patient, being selective, and talking to peers and mentors will...with the current technology to identify a problem, asking what approach will I take and what can I learn,... Dr. George Church (Harvard Medical School) for taking the time to speak with us about adding new scientists...

...whirlwind of skill acquisition. Classes covered filmmaking, podcasting, philosophy of science, creative ...life of Srinivasa Ramanujan, to be precise) and remarking to a classmate that, if this was one day required...communication is an equally fruitful endeavor for those embarking on the route towards academia. Many of those entering...master's degree in 2020, his research explores risk-taking behavior among collision sport athletes, as well...

...Working on the scientific support team at Addgene, I get to see everything that can go wrong with a plasmid...DNA yield. Test multiple, small colonies After streaking LB agar plates, you may notice that there are ...recombined product tend to grow faster, so we recommend picking the smaller colonies which are more likely to carry...the recombined vector backbone, you can try re-streaking for single colonies and testing multiple preps...

...features provide extra layers of risk management when working with viral vectors. Typically, one day after transfection...particles are secreted into the cellular media, making viral collection fairly easy. Producer cell media...transfect’ cells lines are amenable to transduction, making it a logical choice for efficiency. Where viruses...with alternative methods. Ready, set, transduce! Making virus can sound daunting, but it is easier than...

...immunohistochemistry images that are crisp, bright, and lacking in non-specific staining can be a challenge in ... mixing your primary and secondary antibodies, blocking excess secondary with serum from the same species...problem.  Pre-block with Fab fragments (Figure 2C) Speaking of Fab fragments… Another strategy for species-on-species...0022155413511620  Lu QL, Partridge TA (1998). A New Blocking Method for Application of Murine Monoclonal Antibody...

...just on the disease front. Viruses survive by hijacking the machinery of the cells they infect. Once they...proteins. This is, for the intrepid researcher looking for molecular biology tools, a very useful trait...Created using biorender.com   If you’re new to talking about viruses, here’s a quick tip on terminology...reproduce only in experimentally controlled conditions, making them far safer to work with than virions. The four...

...inclination to be a teacher was looking for an outlet. I started asking people: why do you do what you ...bioscience into context, while at the same time working through the details of experimental design and ...of science communication professionals who are thinking about, for example, how to use new technologies...

...Plasmagenes? In the 1940s and 50s, scientists were working to understand genetic cytoplasmic factors that ...and we’ve been using "plasmid" ever since! From napkins to notebooks Although discovered in the early 1950s...initiated at a Hawaiian deli in 1972. Using a deli napkin for paper, a small group of scientists including... curate, and distribute them all in the name of making it a little bit easier for scientists to conduct...

...Will the job require public speaking? Will you be leading a group or working as part of team? Will you .... It is all too easy to get tunnel vision when working towards a specific goal, and when you realise that...often be misleading. Key aspects to determine are working hours (9am-5pm Mon-Fri or overtime and weekends...

...established in yeast, including a widely used Parkinson’s experimental model. In fact, approximately 25%...phaffii is highly efficient at protein secretion, making harvesting recombinant proteins a cinch. This is...it doesn’t secrete its own endogenous proteins, making the recombinant protein its major secretion. Beyond...players in the game (even beyond K. phaffii ) worth looking into whether you’re just dipping your toes into...

...amplification looks like, but by looking at these kinds of graphs, making sure few/no plasmids have dropped... the key points you’ll need to remember when undertaking library amplification and sequencing. Maintain...

...will define positive selection as the means of picking up positive traits (i.e. the plasmid contains a...toxin), whereas negative selection would be the picking up of a negative trait (i.e. the plasmid contains...Conferring Resistance Cell Types* Mode of Action** Working Concentation*** Blasticidin bsd  HeLa, NIH3T3...transfection when creating stable cell lines. Looking for Mammalian Expression Plasmids? Check Out Addgene's...

...and molecular biologists use to tinker with DNA. Making changes to a DNA sequence can help scientists identify...components: the error prone PolI3M that’s fused to a nicking Cas9 (nCas9). Similar to mutagenesis with error...error-prone polymerase (PolI) that is fused to a nicking Cas9. A guide directs Cas9 to a site of interest...changes promote nCas9’s dissociation from DNA after nicking and yielded an enhance nCas9 (enCas9) EvolvR with...

...spread of COVID-19. That’s why we’re proud to be working with Ginkgo Bioworks to synthesize and share over...analyzed first thing the following day. Nothing like waking up to fresh data! These same plasmids are then ...ensuring our rigorous QC standards are met, we are taking a unique hybrid approach compared to our standard...high throughput platforms, Addgene and Ginkgo are striking a balance by modifying certain processes in both...

... the experiment in my head, double-checking details, or just taking a moment to relax. During really stressful...worth doing, and doing well, so make sure you’re taking time to do them carefully and thoroughly. Have ...however, many ways for you to reduce the chances of making an error. Try a variety of things, including (and...

...gate which selects anything to the right of it, marking it as GFP+. Quantification for such graphs could...plot! The dreaded smear - fear not! When you are looking to study the level of protein expression, instead...Figure 2). These smears tend to occur when you are looking at proteins that are expressed regularly in cells...percentage positive or negative in your dot plot, looking at a histogram vs antibody plot would be better...

...work best for your scientific question? If you’re thinking, ‘wait, those terms mean different things?!’, ... to clearly define what type of factor you are looking for and what process or outcome that factor functions... advantage – that is, you are not specifically looking at cells that can survive. Instead, all manipulations... screens are similar to CRISPR, but instead of knocking out the genes of interest (or the whole genome...

... with translatable skills: working with data, working with people, working with complex processes Arm ...Ginkgo Bioworks, our software development team was working on lab operations software for next-gen sequencing...