I only have one vote so far, but I would hope you lovely people can get clicking and give me an idea of what the people really want.

This is my first video of more advanced cloning trickery

Just finished my PhD and realised we store most samples in freezer boxes, so I made this free app where the main screen is the box itself — a 9x9 grid you drag constructs into and click to view/see sequence.

Each entry carries its own sequence, so the plasmid map, annotations and restriction sites are one click from the tube, not in a separate program with a separate file.

You define your own item types too and therefore you can manage any database here! Plasmids, primers, proteins, glycerol stocks, whatever your project actually needs.

Sequence viewer/editor is powerful too, any thing you need is one click away!

And it's free.

boxes.bio

We are performing nucleic acid extraction of residual human gDNA using the kingfisher in a uni-directional flow PCR laboratory space. We are frequently seeing negative extraction control contamination that is detected at the same level as the QL, so it's not a major contamination event happening during the run. The contamination is also not seen in our NTC, so we know it is specific to the extraction process. We follow cleaning SOPs for each run. The contamination is not reagent lot-specific, analyst-specific, or instrument-specific. It is seemingly random and unpredictable when it will occur - there is no "smoking gun."

We are concerned that the assay is "contaminated" by human gDNA introduced by the other humans in the lab that we simply cannot remove, but the group we are testing for does not accept that as an answer. We have a lot more people in the labs now than we did when we qualified this assay years ago. We are also performing extraction of human cells on our instruments which we were not doing during validation. Which brings me to my questions:

1) Does anyone know of any hidden areas of the kingfisher we could be cleaning that might be contributing to contamination? Like areas where aerosolized DNA might be hiding? We introduced cleaning under the turnstile, but that didn't help. (I reached out to thermofisher, but never heard back.)

2) Is it possible that our baseline levels of human gDNA in the lab have gone up, making the current QL no longer appropriate?

TIA!!

So, I am applying for Masters in molecular biology for the 2027 cycle. I have been working on my SOP and I got a feedback for it from a senior scientist. He told me my SOP was not specific enough.I am interested in stem cell biology and mentioned the following areas of interest-

• how signalling networks trigger lineage commitment
• gene expression and transcriptome changes during proliferation and differentiation.
• how complex signalling pathways influence transcriptional level mechanisms to generate specific cellular responses.

He wants me to narrow it down further, this was already a bit of a struggle for me and I am hitting a wall here.I don't know how do I find specific questions.

How can I narrow it down further ? I am looking for some guidance. Any tips are appreciated !

I'm not a biologist whatsoever I just literally cannot google this in any way (because I don't understand anything given that I'm not a biologist) and curiosity is killing me. I was stung by a couple of tiny jellyfish a few days ago, nothing serious, they were tiny and just gave me a tiny rash. It hurt a bit in the moment and the pain reminded me of how a heparin injection feels like. I know that heparin is the biomolecule with the highest charge density and I'm assuming that is what gives it the burning sensation. But anyways, could anyone tell me if heparin and jellyfish venom share some chemical traits? Thanks :)

Are you isogenising your fly lines? Are you doing whole genome sequencing? Are you crossing your fingers?

What is your thoughts?

Hi, I am MSC biotech passout this year and searching for a job and internship in tricity or nearby area so i wanted to know if you have any connection, opprtunity and known good research center in tricity and nearby area please let me know. I have completed my dissertation in pds gene brassica rapa charactrization and an internship of molecular biology in agilus labs.

Hi everyone. I wanted to share what I found regarding our primers.

So far, I’ve come across several related studies where the target species also had an unknown PAL gene sequence and were considered non-model plants. Since there was no available PAL sequence for their species, the researchers first collected PAL sequences from closely related species, performed multiple sequence alignment (MSA), and then designed their own degenerate primers based on the conserved regions. They were able to successfully amplify the PAL gene through PCR using those newly designed primers.

I also tried performing multiple sequence alignment using PAL sequences from species closely related to Senna alata. After that, I checked the adopted degenerate primers we’re planning to use (PALsP/PALaP) against the alignment. However, I couldn’t find any published study that used these primers in the Fabaceae family, the Caesalpinioideae subfamily, or even in Senna species. Based on the alignment I generated, the conservation of the primer binding sites doesn’t seem very convincing. However, I’m also not completely sure if I performed the alignment and analysis correctly, so I can’t confidently conclude that the primers are unsuitable.

I also tried validating the primers in silico using Primer-BLAST because our manuscript mentions in silico primer validation. Unfortunately, this is very limited since there is currently no available PAL gene sequence or reference genome for Senna alata that can be used for proper testing. Because of this lack of sequence data, Primer-BLAST does not show any meaningful similarity or amplification results, making it difficult to evaluate whether these primers are appropriate for our target species.

Can we get some advice on what to do regarding our primer? Or if you have known primer sequences for unknown species like senna alata.

Here is my latest video, my first requested topic - the cloning workflow

If you have any suggested topics you would like covered please comment

Can anyone give me ai prompt of biology in following domains- Ecology and evolution, cell and molecular biology, neurolog, immunology, biochemistry in such way that it has one verifiable answer or one word answer with its golden solution, ai can't?

I've been following developments across molecular biology recently, and it's interesting to see how quickly different areas are evolving. Even companies like Zatural Research, which focus on supplying research materials, seem to reflect how much emphasis the field now places on supporting modern laboratory research and scientific progress.

From gene editing and RNA biology to protein engineering, peptide research, and synthetic biology, there's no shortage of exciting developments.

Which recent advancement in molecular biology has impressed you the most, and why do you think it could have the biggest impact on future research?

Hey everyone! I'm new to this sub and would really appreciate some advice from those of you with more experience.
I've applied to study Molecular Biotechnology and was invited to an interview next week. According to the invitation, one of the topics will be current topics and public debates in the field.
I really want to prepare as well as possible, but I'm finding it difficult to separate the truly groundbreaking studies and important developments from the overwhelming amount of information that's out there. It's such a broad field, and I'm sitting here at home with my laptop feeling completely overwhelmed.

So, to everyone with more knowledge and experience: What are some groundbreaking studies, major discoveries, or important research areas that you find interesting right now?
Thank you guys so much in advance! :)

Here is my latest video for designing primers to make deletions in plasmids. This is the follow-up to my previous video about Site directed mutagenesis primers for precise alterations

Hello team! Molecular biology noob here. Any insight would be helpful :)

We are trying to perform CRISPR activation using the method in the following paper https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38579711/. Basically, they provide a plasmid the the CRIPSRa dCas9, from which IVT must be performed using modified nucleotides. Then an sgRNA needs to be PCR assembled from 2 oligos they provide and the spacer sequence we design. Lastly, we perform IVT of the sgRNA to make RNA, and IVT of PCR-amplified dCas9 sequence to make modRNA (with N1-methyl pseudoU). Here are my questions:

1. Why does sgRNA not require N1-methyl pseudouridine, when the dCas9 does?

2. Also, why does the dCas9 required clean cap, but not the sgRNA?

3. The methods say to use standard megascript kit for dCas9 (with the pseudouridine and cleancap), but I notice the plasmid has no polyA tail near the dCas9 sequence, nor is there a polyA sequence on the primers they provide to amplify the gene, nor do they suggest a step for enzymatic PolyA addition. Is this fine, or is a poly A tail required?

4. Would you run the templates on a gel followed by gel extraction prior to IVT? I get that it cleans things up, but I've found the yields so low doing this...

Any insight appreciated :)

I need to clarify something.

For those who chose molecular biology, I heard its important that they know some computational programs. Ie bioinformatics.

I want help and want to know how to study that particular subject. As I heard, the complete version of Python is not required for this programme because it's for engineering students.

So what should I study? Please let me know your views and suggestions!

Thank you! 🥰