...year and happy reading! Top 10 blog posts of 2015 1. CRISPR 101: Homology Directed Repair Addgenie Chari...used to generate inversions, deletions, and translocations. It also provides researchers with many different...Where Do I Find One? If you need help making a transition into a new job or maybe to an entirely new career...

...Rechsteiner M. Cell. 1982 May;29(1):33-41. PubMed. Protein transduction: unrestricted delivery into all...protein Tat. Although CPP fusions can translocate a cell membrane, the presence of the CPP may alter protein... (78-79% after two rounds of transduction.) Compared to CCP transduction, iTOP is at least four times ..., and cell death post-transduction is low. Neuronal stem cells transduced with iTOP resulting in...lab suggests that primary cells may be better transduced using only protein. Read on for a description...description of the lab’s iTOP protein-only transduction method and its potential applications to CRISPR/Cas9 genome...genome editing.   Protein-only transduction? Niels Geijsen’s group in Utrecht wanted to pursue a nonviral...

...double-stranding step and reduces both the time and cost for AAV genome sequencing.  Figure 1: The...previously require a preliminary double stranding step. The double stranding step was assumed to be necessary...genome is single-stranded and both TA-based ligation and tagmentation require a double-stranded template.  ...extraction, the [+] and [-] strands might naturally associate forming a double-stranded species that could be...extract is a heterogeneous mix of single-stranded and double-stranded species. While not all of the molecules...extract associate with complementary strands, enough double-stranded species exist in the mix to serve as...viral genome We hypothesized that this double stranding step might not actually be necessary. Since the...

... Complex Synthetic Transcriptional Programs with CRISPR RNA Scaffolds. Cell, 160(1), 339-350 (2015). PubMed...recent paper, "Engineering Complex Synthetic Transcriptional Programs with CRISPR RNA Scaffolds." Adam has...visualize the concepts discussed in the paper. The transcriptional control of multiple loci is deftly coordinated...cerevisiae with few techniques that are easily transferrable across host species or metabolic pathways. A...CRISPR-based RNA scaffolds to mimic natural transcriptional programs on multiple genes. Modifying the ...synthetic RNA scaffolds that can recruit various transcriptional regulators (Zalatan et al. 2015).  These scaffolds...nucleotide sequence then subsequently recruit a transcriptional regulator to modulate expression at that locus...

...heat-fixed smear with the crystal violet stain for 1 minute. Rinse the slide briefly with tap water. Flood...diderms, have a thinner peptidoglycan membrane and an outer lipid membrane. Common gram negative bacteria include...within their membrane, while the stain is washed from the gram negative bacteria’s thinner membrane. Procedure...destroys the outer lipid membrane, and the thin inner peptidoglycan membrane is unable to retain the stain...expanded on Gram’s discovery, adding a second stain, safranin, as a counterstain to help visualize the bleached...or monoderms, have a single thick peptidoglycan membrane. Common gram positive bacteria include staphylococci...and immediately rinse. Flood the smear with the safranin counterstain for 30 - 60 seconds. Rinse the slide...

...Tetbow (Tetracycline trans-activator Brainbow) (Sakaguchi et al., 2018) (Figure 1). Once introduced, fluorescent...fluorescent protein (XFP) genes in a transgene. When multiple copies of the transgene cassette are introduced, stochasticity...fluorescent proteins is only possible at low copy number ranges, resulting in low fluorescent protein level. The...gene delivery is more common than conventional transgenic strategies. In such vector-based gene delivery...in the original method, we used the Tetracycline trans-activator system to boost the expression levels,...expression level of XFPs, most likely by suppressing transcription. It is critical to express a minimal amount ...Bio-Protocol 8 (2018): e3046. Livet, Jean, et al. "Transgenic strategies for combinatorial expression of fluorescent...

... Figure 1: Identification and enrichment use of XMAS-TREE. a) Cells are transfected with three different...ready-to-use viral preps   Improved cell-free transcription/translation system to examine biosynthetic pathways... Gabrielle Clouse Recently, cell-free transcription/translation systems (also referred to as TX-TL systems...modifications to edit DNA without requiring a double-stranded break. The Xiao Wang Lab has recently deposited.... These plasmids use “Cas9-mediated adenosine transient reporter for editing enrichment”, or XMAS-TREE...identification of essential MYC binding sites in a wide range of human cells.  A new pooled library from Junjie...

...construction of redCALWY-1, a red-shifted FRET sensor for zinc using variants of mOrange2 and mCherry as donor...field is a series of fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based calcium biosensors. Perhaps most ...developed and published in 2010 for visualizing the transcription factor cAMP-responsive element-binding protein...really important and when? That is not known.” Transition Metals Maarten Merkx of Technische Universiteit...particularly for the intracellular imaging of transition metal ions, such as zinc, copper, and iron. “...the sensors involves plenty of trial and error. Transition metals also present challenges in that they are... way to make a FRET sensor with a large dynamic range,” he says. Merkx recently applied this “trick” to...

...preferentially). You can also rank the plasmids by abundance, scaled to 1, to create a “cumulative wealth... seems straightforward: E. coli bacteria are transformed with the library DNA, they grow and replicate... Each Addgene library has its own depositor transformation and amplification protocol, but the overall...Maintain representation of the library during transformation First, use enough DNA and competent bacteria...and we use electroporation to ensure a good transformation efficiency. For a typical library, Addgene ...growing the cells on solid plates, where each transformant forms its own colony, uninfluenced by the growth...concern, but Addgene still recommends plating the transformation mixture on solid media. The colonies are then...

.... You can email her at [email protected].   References 1. Huang, Ally, et al. "BioBits™ Explorer: A modular...that green fluorescent protein through transcription and translation. Unfortunately, having live cells in... like gel electrophoresis to separate DNA or transforming cells with green fluorescent protein, these ... into a host cell (through a process called transformation), essentially giving the cell all the instructions...enzymes that can convert certain chemicals into fragrances that they can smell, or enzymes that can create...perhaps consider using some elements of BioBits to transition your undergraduate students from the classroom...

...occur, but good performers move around easily  Table 1: Taking it a Step Further - Big Company v. Small Company...encompasses millions of choices including pharma, tech transfer, management consulting, science communication,...into industry.” In his article On Leaving Academe, Terran Lane is asked by his colleagues and friends why...tell you to pick up the pace Constant worry about grants and renewals What is different about non-academia...outsource a task someone else who can do better, no grant writing Job changes can happen regularly (every ...where you want to go will help you focus on the transferable skills that you will need to get there. Additional...

... contain the full length plasmid.   Figure 1: The full lentiviral plasmid is expected to be >12...recombination, one resulting plasmid carries the transgene of interest (aka the viral genome) and the other...resistance gene and origin will replicate, and the transgene will be lost. Over time, bacteria containing the... grow! Our 5 Tips for Troubleshooting Viral Transductions will help with the next steps.   References...recombination of plasmid DNA without affecting mRNA translation efficiency or half-life. RNA 25:507–518. https...common lab E. coli strains Find tips for viral transduction  ...

...motion videos is very time consuming; producing a 1-2 minute video takes an entire week of our free time...have the same issues as one doing experiments in France. We can learn with each other through globalized...

...class.   Four ways to improve your next manuscript 1. Be consistent with your figures The figures of a ...worthless. But simply writing down your data doesn’t guarantee a publication. There is an art to composing manuscripts...

...then scroll on for some wintery delights!    Table 1: New ready-to-use viral vectors in the Addgene repository...Request service, which offers over 3,000 eligible transfer plasmids and five different serotypes. Not sure...

...wide range of input DNA concentrations. This process is explained more fully in the animated Fig. 1 below...plasmids on a plate) will typically have a wide range of input quantities. This variation is problematic...produced from large numbers of samples with a wide range of input concentrations (via proprietary chemistry...differences in input concentration across a 100-fold range (1ng – 100ng) are normalized to two-fold variation...

...heterodimerizes with CIBN upon blue light exposure (see Fig 1*). When the group targeted the enhancer region of ...ubiquitin ligase, the Kanemaki lab was able to translate AID to yeast, as well as mammalian and human cell...PubMed PMID: 31026591. Expanding the targeting range of CRISPRCas9 by engineering SpCas9 Article contributed...are also thought to play a key role in the transcriptional regulation of many genes. A number of groups...thus far for these latter experiments, such as transcription factors tethered to dCas9, require long time...

...produce as many as 700 copies per cell. Figure 1: A plasmid map showing the standard features of a ...plasmids from the same group should not be co-transformed, so if you need two plasmids for an experiment... same incompatibility group should not be co-transformed. +Actual copy number varies. See below for ...stocks, agar stabs, or liquid cultures. Freshly transformed cells also give a higher plasmid yield that colonies...

... and can likely be used in a wide range of bacteria. References 1. Maddalo, Danilo, et al. “In vivo...post about multiplexing with Cpf1.   Figure 1: Multiplexing allows researchers to express multiple...humanized wt Cas9, dCas9 (transcriptional repressor), and dCas9-VP64 (transcriptional activator)-containing...Multiplexing from a single transcript You can also multiplex gRNAs via a polycistronic transcript. Rather than being...being transcribed from different promoters, the gRNAs are transcribed together and are flanked by specific...simultaneously. Vectors for both transient expression and Agrobacterium-mediated transformation are available. For ...system for processing a continuous multi-gRNA transcript, each gRNA must be expressed from its own promoter...

...extension. Now, they split EB1 into two halves (Fig. 1): one containing the microtubule binding domain and...manipulations on cells, and has potential use for a wide range of applications in cellular biology. Van Haren ...fluorescent proteins (FP) with improved tissue penetrance and live cell imaging capabilities. Upon developing...

...net negative charge with 4 negatively charged and 1 positively charged amino acids. Myc tags are frequently...some proteins. Protein folding issues, steric hindrances, and destabilization can be brought about by ...DOI: 10.1038/521274a Arribere, J. A., et al., Translation readthrough mitigation. Nature. (2016) 534, 719...

...Article contributed by Susanna Bachle Figure 1: Initial steps in the CRISPR-pooled screening using...Sabrina Büttner’s lab designed a calcineurin transcriptional reporter consisting of a quickly-degraded destabilized...contributed by Jennifer Tsang Figure 4: Double stranded DNA bound by tTALE-FP with the fluorescent protein...

...defunct (but fun) plug-in called Maps.  Figure 1: See a starfish? This is actually a map of Joanne ...enough, but I’ll never forget the strawberries. Grand gestures are memorable! Attend events for one organization... want to do: Don’t connect via LinkedIn with strangers. It’s a waste of time. People that don’t know ...

...impartial. The best science happens when scientists have 1) the courage to make mistakes and 2) the integrity...of what I saw are that we, as a society, need to: 1) use more citations for out data so our sources are...I’ve worked tirelessly to get the publications, grant funding, and teaching experience that it takes to...

... lactose analogue, IPTG (isopropyl β-D-1-thiogalactopyranoside). (To be completely accurate, IPTG binds...x-gal (5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolyl-β-D-galacto-pyranoside) into galactose and an insoluble blue pigment...α-peptide) to a lacZΔM15-mutant bacterial cell in trans complements the mutation allowing for a functional...site (MCS) into the α-peptide (represented as an orange wedge in the figure on the left) and inserted it...produces pigment from x-gal (included in the transformation plate medium), turning the bacterial colony...IPTG is also included in the medium to ensure transcription of the lac operon.   Tips for blue-white screening...screening Use a good control: Transform the backbone plasmid without insert. All colonies on this plate...

...red light rapidly deactivates the system. Version 1 of this far-red/red light-responsive system is spread...responses are varied; one outcome is directed transcription from a given promoter. To harness the power ...the RR (OmpR) via phosphorylation, promoting transcription (see figure below). Subsequent exposure to red...response regulator via phosphorylation, promoting transcription of a GFP reporter. Subsequent exposure to red...activity persisted in the inactive state. The dynamic range, defined as the difference between the lowest and... reduced system leakiness and increased dynamic range to around 100-fold. These improvements will allow...Applications of these systems The large dynamic range of these systems ensures that they can be used with...

...individual protein has all the components necessary to: 1. Bind to a guide RNA The guide RNA, which will be ...loci. 3. Cleave target DNA resulting in a double-strand break (DSB) Cas9 and its variants have two endonuclease...positions the nuclease domains to cleave opposite strands of the target DNA. Thus, the end result of Cas9...arrays as found in the bacterial genomes are transcribed into pre-crRNAs containing both the spacer region...RNase III, the tracrRNA and Cas9, bind to these transcripts and C) cleave them leaving mature crRNAs bound...target DNA which is E) cleaved leaving a F) double-strand break. A “gRNA” is a researcher-designed hybrid...

...through the use of nanoparticles. [6].    References 1. Zhang B. 2021. “CRISPR/Cas gene therapy.” Journal...editing system to correct the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductor receptor (CFTR) by homologous recombination...Cas9 has been used to generate mutations in a wide range of organisms, but its potential to efficiently correct...Cas-based Gene Therapy in Human Genetic Diseases.” Theranostics. https://doi.org/10.7150/thno.43360 7. Yuxuan...

... will be a positive asset throughout your career? 1. Make scicomm practice a priority The good news for...next interview or whether your receive the next grant you apply for. After all, the only value your work...high level to their team.  When you're writing a grant, this means convincing a committee that your research...collaborating with colleagues in other fields or writing grant proposals to be reviewed by interdisciplinary panels...communities gather at ComSciCon's local and specialized franchise workshops throughout the year.  Find workshops...

...into account, the digest pattern depicted in Lane 1 would be expected for a XbaI/NotI digest. The program...DNA. The other component of these systems, methyltransferases, methylate DNA at particular sequences to...restriction modification systems containing methyltransferases that add methyl groups to specific DNA sequences...overlaps with the XbaI cut site (depicted as an orange line) because the restriction site is followed ...plasmids with no methylation (there are no methyltransferases in the PCR reaction). The template plasmid...

...challenges involved in plant synthetic biology. Challenge #1: Public perception of synthetic biology One of the...how they started their company here. The first transgenic plant was engineered over 30 years ago, but plant... still in its infancy. A long timeline from transformation to testing and a lack of well-characterized...s made even more difficult by the fact that transformation methods have also been patented. In order to.... We will also be working with open source, transformation technologies like those pioneered by Ewen Mullins...

... After all I was only going to be interviewed for 1 hour so having a broad enough insight was going to...promotions or further education may allow you to transition into various realms of business.  Thank you ...

...-fDIO mCherry 83900 AAVrg pAAV-mDlx-GFP-Fishell-1 Biosensors Plasmid Serotype Name 83899 AAVrg...expression, researchers often need to determine these transduction patterns empirically for their own experiments...AAV2 pOTTC1032 - pAAV EF1a Nuc-flox(mCherry)-EGFP Brandon Harvey 50457 AAV2 pAAV-hSyn-DIO-EGFP Bryan Roth...system takes advantage of the extensive supply of transgenic reporter lines that supply a variety of GFP expression...

...the guides are relatively unstable.   Figure 1: CRISPRainbow labeling. Two MS2, PP7, or boxB sequences...the spatial and temporal arrangement of chromosomes and how these arrangements may affect nuclear processes...

...as an endogenous RNA imaging tool.   Fig. 1: Csm, shRNA, and Cas13 were compared head-to-head ... knockdown efficiency across the 11 candidate transcript targets analyzed. CRISPR-Csm presents an attractive...! Colognori D, Trinidad M, Doudna JA. Precise transcript targeting by CRISPR-Csm complexes. Nat Biotechnol...

...instead conveniently provide them on your smart phone. 1. Lab Archives by LabArchives The single, most important...MSDS for a lab chemical of choice. Now, I can’t guarantee every reagent in your chemical closet is in this...this app. However, if you get quizzed randomly about a hazardous chemical and can’t find your lab’s MSDS...

...present in the data such as synapsin, hsyn synapsin-1, human synapsin, hSynap. Matching We capture multiple...categorization of our information in order to more granularly customize the search engine, and a scoping mechanism...example, matches of a name in the depositor field will rank higher than matches of the same name in the publication...

...Networking 101-Building Relationships for Success”. Choose 1-2 tactics to try. One of my favorites is making the...work for almost 20 years. It is good to be a bit random because you never know which relationships will...These are all normal outcomes. If you have a broad range of mentors you will always have people you can turn...

...techniques?  Let us know in the comments! References 1. Bacteriophage P1 site-specific recombination. I. ...A double-strand DNA break occurs within the core spacer of each loxP site and the two strands are ligated...maintained).  Translocation: If the sites are on separate DNA molecules, a translocation event is generated... expression – placing a series of transcriptional and translational termination features with loxP sites... pun) specific, targeted DNA modifications in transgenic animals, embryonic stem cells, and/or tissue-...that there is virtually no chance of it occurring randomly. Therefore, inserting loxP sites at deliberate...Inversion: If the loxP sites are on the same DNA strand and are in opposite orientations, recombination...

...Blood cells are not transduced efficiently with adenovirus and AAV.   Table 1: Types of viruses... Retroviruses are single-stranded RNA viruses that use reverse transcriptase to synthesize complementary...for most experimental needs, and can transduce (infect) a wide range of cell types with a high efficiency... such as a heterologous envelope or a post-transcriptional regulatory element can be used for either type...Adeno-associated virus (AAV) is a small, single-stranded DNA parvovirus. AAV can infect humans and some...response as retroviruses. This virus can also transduce dividing and non-dividing cells, making it conducive...issue. Adenovirus Adenovirus has a linear, double stranded DNA genome which is non-enveloped. It can infect...

...site. Figure 1: The base editor is split into two plasmids and co-transfected into cells for reconstitution...the co-transduction by two viruses would lower editing efficiency, the split editors transduced at levels...capacity of 4-5 kb limits the delivery of larger transgenes, such as base editors which have a gene size ...-opsin GEVIs. With an increase in the neuron’s membrane potential, Ace absorbance increases and results...promoters, CRISPRi parts, selectable markers, transformation acceptor vectors, and sequences for genomic...plasmids using the Cyanogate Kit and subsequent transformation into cyanobacteria. Image from Vasudevan et... evaluated CreLite for cell tracing using the transgenic zebrafish model, ubi:zebrabow. In this system...

...and CasPEDIA have got you covered!     Fig. 1 – CasPEDIA Cas ID display information for a given ...Cas enzymes) cleaves both strands of its dsDNA target in cis and has no trans activity. AsCas12a, on the...cleaves ssDNA in trans. In sum, CasPEDIA documents the target substrate (DNA/RNA and strandedness) along with...Cas enzyme: Nuclease properties (CasID): Cis/trans activity, PAM requirement, gRNA, and multiplex ability...features: CasID CasPEDIA will display both the cis and trans activity of each entry. For example, SpyCas9a (one...can manually enter details to refine your search (trans activity, multiplex ability, gRNA design, etc.).....32942/X2C31F     Makarova, K. S., Wolf, Y. I., Iranzo, J., et al. (2019). Evolutionary classification...

...her at [email protected]. References 1. Dieterich, Daniela C., et al. "In situ visualization and dynamics... has recently published techniques to follow translation in living single cells. However, before CRISPR-Cas9...the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. She presented a novel technology...to be invited to learn from them at the MPI in Frankfurt am Main and perform similar experiments. Visualizing...Both antibodies have a short antibody specific DNA strand added to them. Only if the proteins of interest...are in close proximity to each other can the DNA strands take part in rolling circle DNA amplification. ...microscope she likes to travel, discover new restaurants, go to concerts and bake. you can contact her...

...guide outlines these components.     Fig. 1 - Viral vector components of retrovirus  Adeno-associated...the delivered cargo (often a gene) is called the transfer plasmid while the other plasmids with packaging... or something similar, and is contained on the transfer plasmid. If expression is the goal, a promoter...Pol, the last component, contains the reverse transcriptase and integrase components to convert the cargo...other to allow DNA synthesis of the complementary strand to yield dsDNA. Unlike LTRs, ITRs are perfectly...delivered and expressed in the host cell from the transfer plasmid. Viral packaging and entry The viral packaging...the primary viral polymerase. E4/E1A activate transcription of other relevant viral genes (including the...

...into the genome of mammalian cells.  Figure 1: The SRIRACCHA reporter construct. Image from Wen ...Wen et al., 2018). SRIRACCHA uses the Piggybac transposon to stably integrate a reporter gene that contains..., you’re ready to edit. These cells are then transfected with several different constructs for the reporter... gRNAs by simply changing the gRNA used when transfecting your cells.  A plasmid that contains Cas9. The...plasmid.  With this set up, all successfully transfected cells will express RFP while cells containing... Lastly, once a mutant is identified, the PB transposase can easily and seamlessly remove the integrated...Knudsen C, Ásgrímsdóttir ES, Rahimi K, Gill KP, Frandsen S, Hvolbøl Buchholdt S, Chen M, Kjems J, Febbraro...

...may begin to prove the technology. This transition takes around 1 – 2 years. The product is the measure...community. As a result, I have occasionally pondered translating my research into a startup company. However, ...school and turn it into a biotech company. Transitioning an idea from academia to a startup Mike Koeris... biotech startup, Mike explained, his career transitioned away from the bench and became all about finding...stages in the startup". To gain insight into "the random-walk" of a budding startup, I asked Mike to outline...into it.” Have any other helpful tips to help transition a project from academia to a biotech startup ...

... UK team members before they log off for the day. 1:45 PM--Write final report. Work on a final report ...alone. A few years ago when I started my career transition from bench science to software product management...explaining more of her role, which eventually led me to transfer to her team and begin my product management (PM...science backgrounds, most did not. It was my job to translate complex lab operations workflows into a format... help improve their work. Then, I distill and translate that valuable information back to the rest of ...science companies, try to find internships with translatable skills: working with data, working with people...

...non-canonical amino acid at the site of interest (figure 1). While the codon used is often one of the three stop...factors can negatively impact both translation and fidelity of translation, leading to system-wide effects... incorporation of an unnatural amino acid in translation (Noren et al., 1989). In the late nineties, this...non-interacting with) the cells’ own natural translation machinery; these are often incorporated into ...

...medRxiv.org) in the past few years.   Fig. 1: Stand aside, CERN - it's a new age of accelerating...conference poster or talk, or submitting patent or grant applications; to informal settings like lab meetings..., and increase their impact. Open Access and Transparency Another major benefit of preprints is their ... of listing “Submitted” articles in their CV or grant applications. A number of organizations (such as...be prone to biases or errors, with a lack of transparency in most review processes. Preprints and their...

...in Streptomyces (Cobb et al., 2015). pCRISPomyces-1 includes Cas9, a tracrRNA, and a CRISPR array, while... four major components including (1) a CRISPR RNA, (2) four proteins forming the QCascade DNA-targeting...modify a given gene. CRISPR-tranposons By combining CRISPR editing and transposons, the Sternberg and Zhang...developed CRISPR-transposons. The Sternberg lab's system called INTEGRATE (Insertion of Transposable Elements ... CAST (CRISPR-associated Transposase) both enable gRNA-directed transposition. INTEGRATE consists of four...multi-spacer CRISPR array, CRISPR-transposons can be multiplexed. Transcriptional repression (CRISPRi) in bacteria...proteins involved in the activation of transcription including transcription factors, phage proteins, and RNAP...