By Rachel Leeson
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If you take a look in a typical lab freezer, you’ll probably find lots of different plasmids containing the same protein of interest tagged with different fusion proteins for different experiments over the years — a green fluorescent protein, a red fluorescent protein, a fancy ...
Understanding the characteristics of natural plasmids and how they function in nature can inform us on how to create better recombinant vectors. In this blog post, we’ll define plasmid host range, identify a few of the features that confer broad host range in plasmids in nature, ...
Starting today, you may notice some changes to our website! Part of sharing science and making access to materials easier is improving the tools you use to share and access them. Addgene’s product, development, and content teams have made some changes to the look and feel of ...
When using flow cytometry to analyze your samples, it is necessary to set up a sequence of gates to be able to select and precisely measure your cells of interest. In many experiments you’ll be working with a heterogeneous cell population, for example from a processed piece of ...
Integrins are essential cell surface receptors involved in complex signaling pathways and the linkage of intra- and extracellular environments. Found on nearly every cell in the human body, integrins are key to a diverse array of processes, including cell adhesion, migration, ...
While the antibodies present throughout our bodies carry out plenty of roles just the way they are, the research antibodies in your refrigerator often need a little help to be useful. Mainly because, well, antibodies are kind of hard to see. To solve this issue, researchers ...
Throughout their history, fluorescent dyes have enabled the visualization of both organic tissues and cell cultures, opening biological interiors to many inquisitive scientists. Seeing inside these specimens has offered illumination on biochemical processes that are crucial in ...
Our popular Antibodies 101 animation is becoming a TikTok series! Follow @addgene on TikTok for bite-sized portions of antibody concepts. Each short video answers an Antibodies 101 question, like "what is an antibody?" or "what is an IgE isotype?"
In the last decade, the use of degron tags has become increasingly popular for the modulation of endogenously and exogenously expressed proteins. Here we will review what advantages degron tags can offer over other protein control methods and compare the commonly available types ...
As a plasmid repository, we are no strangers to cloning. If you’re reading this, then chances are you have been in the cloning trenches yourself. Modular cloning, or MoClo, is a systematic cloning strategy designed by synthetic biologists to perform large scale, one-tube cloning ...
The PAM… that sneaky little bit of sequence that you hope is present next to the "perfect" guide sequence for your genome engineering experiment. With CRISPR entering the clinic for correction of disease-causing alleles, and the growing need for gene editing in research, the old ...
What's new in Addgene's ready-to-use viral vectors repository? Quite a bit! In this post, we'll share the 21 additions we've made to our viral vectors repository this year (and it's only March!)
At Addgene, it is our mission to make it easy for you to share plasmids. To achieve this goal, we will archive any plasmids you've deposited with us and distribute them to scientists worldwide. What's more, depositing is free! We've written this post as a step-by-step guide to ...
Ready to learn about antibodies? Our latest animation is here to help! Join Abi as they explain what antibodies are, their role in the immune response, and the different antibody isotypes found in mammals.
Every few months we highlight some of the new plasmids, antibodies, and viral preps in the repository through our Hot Plasmids articles.
Addgene was built on the concept of accessibility: making plasmids more accessible to scientists around the world. In 2004, that was a fairly simple goal… and we had no idea how much our understanding of what accessibility is would change over the next twenty years. But learn we ...
Monoclonal antibody drugs are popular therapeutics for a plethora of disease conditions, from cancer to autoimmune disorders. Antibodies administered as drugs are still immunogenic, meaning that they elicit an immune response from the body. Several factors contribute to the ...
“Off-target effects” a vague catch-all term for unintended consequences in an experiment. For CRISPR work, this often means DNA cleavage at unanticipated sites. While off-target effects are nearly impossible to eliminate, it’s essential to understand them in order to design the ...
If you’re interested in studying immunology or subpopulations of cells, you’ll soon find yourself encountering flow data in the literature. Data reported from flow cytometry experiments can be a little challenging to understand if you’ve never done any flow. But in order to plan ...
Addgene is excited to announce we now offer an export license application for rabies materials! Some of the materials in our repository, including rabies plasmids, are export-controlled materials in the USA, where Addgene is located. The export license, if granted, allows us to ...
Cellular communication and function depend on potential energy. Cellular activities like action potentials, muscle contractions, and the control of voltage gated ion channels all depend on transmitting and sensing electrical potential. Thankfully, there is a tool to measure ...
Once upon a time, not so long ago, spCas9 was the only Cas enzyme widely available and applied by researchers for gene targeting. Fast forward a decade, and the CRISPR field has exploded with dozens of Cas enzymes and variants available. Without a comprehensive resource, it can ...
With renewed energy and optimism that comes at the start of every new year, it is a wonderful opportunity to once again reflect on our achievements in the last year and share the exciting things to come in the new year. I am proud of what we accomplished in 2023 and thrilled to ...
¡La primera edición de nuestro libro electrónico CRISPR 101 ya está disponible en español!
Annotation of genes in immune cells typically involves the creation of germline knockout mice, which is time-consuming, as it only changes one gene at a time. CRISPR-based systems enable gene knockout in immune cells in a high-throughput manner, but these systems have not been ...
Addgene is announcing we have chosen to stop all activity on X, formerly Twitter. If you are interested in engaging with us on social media, you can find us on Bluesky: @addgene.bsky.social; or @addgene on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and LinkedIn. We are also exploring other ...
Today marks Addgene's 20th anniversary! We've done so much in the past two (2!) decades that it's hard to summarize, but we wanted to mark the occasion by trying.
Neuromodulators like dopamine and norepinephrine have important functions in the brain but have been difficult to study without biosensors to directly visualize their activity. In 2019, the first generation of norepinephrine sensors was developed, named GRABNE, which helped ...
It's December, and that means it's officially the start of Addgene's winter holiday celebrations! We're kicking it off by sharing all the incredible guest posts and stories featured in our blog in 2023. Some of these were written by guest authors, while others chose to work with ...
Every few months, we highlight a subset of the new plasmids, antibodies, and viral preps in the repository through our Hot Plasmids articles. Today, it's time for another edition of Hot Plasmids!
Getting ready for Society for Neuroscience Conference 2023? So are we! Come say hi to us at Addgene's booth, #3422, in the nonprofits section.
There can be no doubt that CRISPR/Cas9 technology has been a breakthrough for the genome-editing field and the greater scientific community. In 2014, we wrote a blog post on CRISPR’s potential for correcting monogenetic diseases. Now, almost 10 years later, CRISPR’s potential ...
Looking for a fast and inexpensive way to determine your antibody's purity? Check out our latest protocol video, "Coomassie Purity Stain of Recombinant Antibodies."
Addgene has a growing catalogue of viral preps available to request. In this post, we’ll walk you through how we produce both our AAV preps and our lentiviral preps.
Adeno-associated viruses (AAV) are an important biological tool that allow scientists to express a gene of interest in a cell or animal model. AAV plasmids contain several important elements, but among the most important are the inverted terminal repeats (ITRs). ITRs are the ...
The blood-brain-barrier (BBB) exists to prevent substances in the blood, like proteins and viruses, from crossing into the brain. While helpful from a biological standpoint, it makes delivering AAVs to the brain difficult. Traditionally, delivery is achieved through the use of ...
Plasmids need antibiotic resistance genes so that you can specifically isolate bacteria containing your constructs of interest. But does it matter which antibiotic resistance gene you select? In this blog, we’ll break down the mechanism of action of the most common antibiotic ...
In a world where so much is out of your hands, it’s helpful to focus on something controllable, like experiments (and their controls!). This blog post will discuss the ins and outs of controls for biological experiments, starting with general controls and then moving on to ...
In April 2022, physicians in Scotland began noticing unusual cases of acute hepatitis in the pediatric population. Once ~400 cases had amassed in places around the world, hypotheses began to develop that this illness was caused by either SARS-CoV-2, Adenovirus type 41 (AdV-41), ...
Optogenetics gives you the power to control cells or organisms with the flip of a switch. You may be familiar with popular light-sensitive ion channels used to control activities like neuronal signaling — think of a mouse with an LED brain implant or a worm wiggling back and ...
We’ve all either been there or are going to be there – undergraduate students, rotation students, joining a new lab at any career stage, learning a new technique while visiting a lab, or maybe even training on a new technique with a coworker. Being a new trainee (even if you’re ...
Fighting with antibodies to produce immunohistochemistry images that are crisp, bright, and lacking in non-specific staining can be a challenge in the best of cases. But it can be particularly challenging when your only antibody option is from the same species as your tissue ...
You’ve designed the perfect experiment – controls, conditions, and everything in between – now all you need are some of your favorite proteins purified to carry out your plan. With a little thoughtful planning, affinity tags can make protein purification a cinch. Types of ...
I spent about seven years working in research labs, and then pivoted to writing full-time in mid-2020. As I left the ivory tower and walked down into its foothills, I began to have conversations with many people who eagerly follow progress in synthetic biology, and want to be ...
Primer design. Plasmid mapping. DNA sequence analysis. We all have our favorite tools for tackling these particular tasks, but they tend to be scattered about the internet. To help you keep your virtual molecular biology toolbox organized, today’s post features a list of free ...
We are excited to announce the fourth edition of our popular eBook, Plasmids 101, is now available!
I often wonder about the gut-brain axis (admittedly for self-serving reasons – I want to understand my obsession with the combination of chocolate and peanut butter), but it’s an undeniably difficult connection to study on a molecular level. The brain is constantly influenced by ...
If you’re interested in learning a new skill, getting access to equipment you don’t have, or maybe both, a visiting scientist stint may be ideal for you. Here, we will chat about who might want to explore this role, how to seek out such an arrangement, and how to operate once in ...
Viruses are simple – a genome packaged in a protein shell (Taylor, 2014). They’re so simple that we can’t even decide if they’re alive or not. Yet these simple, small particles have quite the outsized impact – and not just on the disease front.
Calcium is arguably one of the most important metal ions in biology (sodium and potassium are up there too!). Calcium is fundamental to muscle and nerve function, hormone secretion, blood clotting, and as we all know, a structural component of bones and teeth. It is an enzyme ...
Flow cytometry is one of the most powerful tools available to immunologists, allowing for the rapid analysis of cell populations within a heterogenous tissue type, such as PBMCs or tumors, and moreso than other methods, the identification and isolation of rare cell types. In ...
If you’ve ever used Golden Gate Assembly for cloning, you might be familiar with the rules of thumb for designing your overhang sets. But are those rules the best way to design GGA overhang sets, particularly for high-complexity reactions?
The Retroviridae (commonly called retrovirus) family — of which HIV is a member — may seem like an unlikely candidate to use as a viral vector, but retroviruses have been developed into some of the most widely used tools in molecular biology. “Retroviruses” is an umbrella term ...
For safety and production reasons, multiple plasmids with many components are used to package lab grown viruses. It can be intimidating at first to look at so many plasmid maps and protocols! In reality, there are many shared components across viruses (AAV, lentivirus, etc.) and ...
Erik Snapp just released version 3.4 of his eBook, How to Get a Faculty Position. This edition has substantial expansions on the chalk talks and Zoom interviews sections, along with new thoughts on research statements. Snapp, who is always looking for ways to improve his eBook, ...
If you’ve ordered a pooled library from Addgene, you may have been a little surprised at how this powerful tool is in such a small package. But don’t let the simple presentation deceive you; pooled libraries can be quite challenging to use! In this post, I’ll walk you through ...
In order to understand the complex wiring of the brain and the underpinnings of neurological disease, neuroscientists need to be able to probe cells and circuits without disrupting normal brain function. Chemogenetics has become a popular tool in the field as it provides a ...
The calcium is strong here….I can sense it….sound like a plot to an biology scifi movie? Or maybe it’s a biosensor?! You can do more than just ‘sense’ biological compounds and reactions; you can quantify them with biosensors! In this blog we will review the basics of biosensors ...
As an undergraduate student at Northeastern University, I am required to complete a six month work experience called a co-op to receive a degree. Northeastern compiles a list of hundreds of different jobs for students to apply to, and after a grueling two months of job hunting ...
In 2005, Boyden et al. described the first light-activated tool for controlling neuronal activity, channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2), a blue light-activated cation channel, from the archaebacteria Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. When exposed to blue light, this channel activates neuronal ...
Viruses have become a regular part of basic biological research as well as clinical therapy. These biological tools are useful because they’re derived from viruses that can infect people, cells, and animals. Some of these viruses are completely inert, but others can cause ...
Expansion Microscopy (ExM) promises an easier, more accessible way to image biological features previously only visible via techniques like super-resolution microscopy or electron microscopy. Since its introduction in 2015 by the Boyden Lab, ExM has been steadily growing in ...
If you study proteins, you’re probably quite interested in the canonical 20 amino acids. But in your quest to learn more about your protein of interest, you may find the available amino acids a bit…limiting. It may be time, then, to look towards genetic code expansion (GCE): ...
Addgene is excited to announce the launch of our partnership with the Institute for Protein Innovation (IPI). Together, we’ll be working to provide researchers with a collection of IPI’s well-validated and ready-to-use recombinant antibodies. The first collection, a set of ...
IBEX is a highly multiplexed tissue imaging method that uses iterative staining and chemical bleaching to allow for high-resolution imaging without degrading the tissue (Radtke et al., 2020, 2022). I do mean highly multiplexed: you can image over 65 different parameters using ...
There are a lot of viruses out there – most of which we would all like to steer clear of! However, a subset of viruses are commonly used in the lab as tools and we all might benefit from getting to know them a little better. Here we will discuss the four most commonly used lab ...
Using AAV vectors in complex biological systems can be tricky at best, and downright infuriating at worst. While it is tempting to just dive right in and start injecting your virus, a successful AAV experiment starts with validation and optimization. Although there are different ...
Adeno-associated virus (AAV) is a single stranded, Parvoviridae DNA virus, packaged in a non-enveloped icosahedral capsid, that can be used to express genes of interest in cell and animal models. AAVs are non-pathogenic, do not integrate into the host genome, and can be ...
Last summer, we posted about our bioinformatics quest, which led us to Seqera Labs, a company that provides open source workflow orchestration software for data pipeline processing (Nextflow), cloud infrastructure, and secure collaboration.
You may be familiar with immunofluorescence (IF, often referred to as immunocytochemistry (ICC) when the sample is cultured cells or immunohistochemistry (IHC) with tissues), where an antibody binds a target protein in your sample, then a fluorescently labeled secondary antibody ...
When it comes to using antibodies in the lab, we focus on a lot on the variable domain and not so much on the constant, or Fc, domain. Sure, we all know that the Fc domain provides structure, determines isotypes, and provides a place for secondary antibodies to bind. We also ...
The stress of finding a ‘good’ antibody is something we’ve all experienced. Finding an antibody that works for your application, specifically detects your protein, is species compatible, and doesn’t come with a high background can be a huge challenge. Epitope tags eliminate the ...
The biomedical field is often concerned with understanding the cause of diseases and how to treat those diseases. The “cause of disease” often requires understanding the disease genetics and the “treatment” usually requires drugs. While we often think of these two fields as ...
Around 20% of human genes have no known function or a poorly defined function (Wood, et al). In the microbial world, approximately 50% of predicted genes have unidentified roles as well (Vanni, et al). Is it true that this many genes are truly dispensable or are the current ...
We often think about the brain’s function in terms of its regions. But equally important is the way the brain connects across these regions, a process driven by neurons. By studying how neurons are physically connected, we can begin to understand how the brain works. It’s kind ...
You are a scientist looking to determine how Protein A and Protein B interact. You read extensive research on the two proteins and come up with a great experimental plan that requires indirect staining of both targets in your specimen. You scour the literature and find an ideal ...
Public speaking is not just one of the most common phobias–it’s a key part of being a scientist and an incredibly useful transferable skill. Being able to stand up in front of an audience and convey your ideas clearly and strategically is powerful in almost any career. It allows ...
Ever wondered where human embryonic kidney (HEK) cells originated from? Or why they are such a commonly used cell culture model? In this blog we will spill the beans on all things HEK, from the first experiments isolating the cell line all the way to modern applications.
Viruses are the SUVs of molecular biology – they can deliver materials to specific destinations, haul a variety of cargo, and even handle a variety of terrains. They are, in fact, a choice delivery vector from basic science research all the way to clinical gene therapy. But how ...
I was excited to see that Addgene has recently added a new feature for depositing labs to its website, allowing depositors to download their plasmid request data, as a CSV file, anytime. The CSV is a rich source of information and has data on the date, material, requesting PI ...
If you are lucky in lab life, you will have a plethora of antibody options for your experiment (all well validated for your application, of course!) When the stars are aligned and the lab gods are smiling down at you, you may wonder which antibody should I pick? Do I go for the ...
We all know that yeast is a powerful eukaryotic model organism – its genome is easy to manipulate, it’s affordable, and it grows fast to boot. The yeast strains S. cerevisiae and S. pombe have dominated the research scene. But what about the other yeasts – in the biomedical ...
Transcription factors (TFs) act as the gate keepers for gene expression, turning transcription on and off by binding proximal to their target genes. Since gene expression patterns determine everything from stem cell differentiation fate to tumor suppression (and most everything ...
Running a Western blot can be a bit daunting for first-timers. That's why we gave our written protocol a video companion! Follow along as Addgenie Meghan and Abi run a Western blot and share tips for this tricky application.
This post was originally written by Jennifer Tsang and updated by Rachel Leeson. Have you ever wondered how long it takes to make a plasmid? Or how much time you have to spend cloning before you can start your experiment? What about all the reagents you need to order? Sometimes, ...
Viruses have many negative associations: common colds, COVID-19, norovirus (the stomach flu), and many more. Their infectious nature allows them to easily deliver their “cargo” to target cells and organisms, and when that cargo is designed to make you sick…well, you feel it. But ...
You’ve acquired your long-awaited data – and it looks great! There are some exciting trends in your experimental groups, but how do you determine if they deserve that oh-so coveted asterisk of significance? You’ve already done the heavy lifting, so don’t let the statistical ...
Much of today's biological research requires a close examination of specific proteins within a system. This can be pretty complicated given that a single cell has tens of thousands of proteins functioning in a variety of ways. How do scientists focus on the activity or function ...
Since its early years, the light microscope has been a powerful tool in almost all disciplines. In biology, innovative new imaging approaches are constantly being developed which combine computational processing with biological protocols and revolutionary physical approaches. ...
Addgene saw big changes in 2022, from the launch of a new material to the redesign of a community resource. Now that we’re in the first quarter of the new year, I’d like to take a moment to reflect on our accomplishments from 2022 and share what we’re looking forward to in 2023 ...
This post was co-authored by Susanna Stroik and Rachel Leeson. Here at Addgene, we like to help share useful new resources with the scientific community – particularly ones that help address ongoing problems, like cells lines. A 2014 study in Science found that approximately ...
Turn it on? Turn it off? Turn it down, but not forever? You don’t need to resort to the force to control protein expression in mammalian cells: easy to use biological tools are abundant! In this post, we will review tried-and-true protein expression control tools as well as ...
When Karl Barry Sharpless was awarded this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry, he joined an elite club, becoming just the fifth repeat Nobel Prize winner in history. Interestingly, he also adds to the disproportionately large number of honorees to have trained under a previous ...
We're excited to roll out the redesigned, revamped, and re-launched Addgene AAV Data Hub, the place for scientists to share their AAV validation data. The Data Hub contains a curated collection of community submissions for Addgene and CLOVER AAV experiments - and we've updated ...
Transcription, translation, and prone to degradation – those are the words that describe RNA! Double stranded? Well, that’s just for DNA – right?
Every few months we highlight a subset of the new plasmids, antibodies, and viral preps in the repository through our hot plasmids articles. Think we missed something smokin'? You can pitch a Hot Plasmids section (antibodies and viral preps welcome!) here.
Originally written by Marcy Patrick and Mary Gearing on Mar 12, 2015; updated by Christina Mork, Jul 27, 2020; updated by Susanna Stroik January 24, 2023. DNA damage drives genome instability and contributes to cancer, premature aging, and other harmful processes. The most ...
What are Acoustic Reporter Genes (ARGs)? Fluorescent and bioluminescent reporter genes are widely used to study gene expression in cells. But these reporters have limited use in vivo because they are based on light which is very easily scattered by tissue. Ultrasound, on the ...
Do you ever wonder about the origins of some of the common techniques or tools you use in the lab? Take for instance, the commonly used Myc-tag. Who first started using it in protein tagging experiments? Why Myc? When did the commonly used anti-c-Myc [9E10] antibody come into ...
Sleigh bells, please! It's time to announce the winners of the 2022 #DeckTheLab contest!
When performing restriction digests on plasmids at Addgene, we sometimes observe something odd in our uncut DNA control: a band or two appear on an agarose gel at notably higher molecular weights than expected, given the size of the plasmid. This is seen only in the uncut DNA; ...
Every student about to graduate shares the same nightmare: the question “So, what comes next?” For those finishing up an undergraduate education or ending a Master’s program, the answer might be to continue in academia and pursue a PhD. However, if you’re anything like me, the ...
Every year we celebrate the 12 Days of CRISPR with some of the latest and greatest in CRISPR tools and resources! Ready to sing along with this year's lineup? Right! We're ready to, so let's get started!
Taking the road less traveled and generating a knock-in cell line instead of a knock-out? We’ve got you covered in this blog, with tips and tricks for harnessing the homology-directed repair pathway, designing the best donor DNA, and avoiding common mishaps in this class of ...
Promoters control the binding of RNA polymerase and transcription factors. Since the promoter region drives transcription of a target gene, it therefore determines the timing of gene expression and largely defines the amount of recombinant protein that will be produced. Many ...
This Depositor Week, we're highlighting eight amazing posts on research done in our depositor labs. Some are written by Addgenies and some are written by the depositors themselves. All of them have cool new tools, techniques, or information that is now available for other ...
Hello and welcome to Depositor Week 2022! It’s that special time of year where we Addgenies use our social media and blog to say thank you to all the many scientists and researchers who deposit with us!
We are all oh so familiar with the nuclease Cas9, but how does it stack up to the new Cas enzymes on the block? The Cas family of proteins has many useful genome engineering enzymes, each with their own unique features and quirks. Here, we will review the genome engineering ...
Here at Addgene’s headquarters, the skies are getting dark and wintry with the end of year approaching. We’re always looking for something to brighten our day, whether it’s memories of summer or just a bright new plasmid. One area with lots of bright new plasmids is our ...
Biomedical research has a long and well-documented history of racial bias, which still impacts and influences current research. Understanding the depth and breadth of this bias, and then using that understanding to intentionally remove racial bias from work being done today, is ...
Our educational content
You’ve committed to the daunting task of finding new factors in your biological system of interest, the so-called “fishing expedition.” Your first question is: to screen or to select? Which method will work best for your scientific question? If you’re thinking, ‘wait, those ...
This post was originally written by Melina Fan and updated Nov 3, 2022 by Susanna Stroik. You’ve designed your gRNA and introduced it into your target cells with Cas9. Hooray! Now it’s time to make sure your genome edits went according to plan. In this blog post we’ll explain ...
We’ve all heard “Get that tube on ice!!” and “I hope it isn’t degraded” when scientists talk about their precious RNA samples. RNA is inherently less stable than most macromolecules used in scientific research such as DNA or protein. It comes as no surprise then that stability ...
This post was originally written by Joel McDade and significantly updated in 2022 by Susanna Stroik. The advent of CRISPR/Cas9 has made it easier than ever to make precise, targeted genome modifications. Cas9 has been modified to enable researchers to knock out, knock in, base ...
Every few months we highlight a subset of the new plasmids, antibodies, and viral preps in the repository through our hot plasmids articles. Think we missed something hot? You can pitch a Hot Plasmids section (antibodies and viral preps welcome!) here.
Welcome to our deep dive series, which aims to increase your understanding and technical proficiency with common applications - now let’s dive right in!
We're going virtual for Addgene’s first AAV Data Hub Challenge, now taking place Dec. 6, 2022! Share your AAV data, connect with other researchers working with AAV, support open science, and maybe even win a $500 travel prize in our open data extravaganza!
Welcome to the last of our Summer SciComm Series! We hope you've enjoyed this small glimpse into the world of science communication and can use what you've learned to share your science with others. My favorite quote about science ever comes from an interview in which someone ...
Working with AAV vectors in the brain and peripheral nervous system presents a special challenge to scientists. What works well in one cell or neuron type may not work well for a neighboring cell type, even within the same brain region or nucleus. Just optimizing AAV expression ...
A few months ago, we shared an introduction to immunofluorescence (IF) - a common method for visualizing molecules of interest within a cell or tissue. In that introduction, we broke down the method into six general steps and outlined the considerations to be made during each ...
I’ve always been fascinated by the human body and how it works. I used to stay up past my bedtime, poring over my grandparents’ medical textbooks by torchlight under the covers. In high school, I went to all the optional sexual health sessions and reported the intel back to my ...
As a scientist, perhaps the most important part of your research is communicating the results of the work. Yes, those control experiments are important - but without letting other scientists know the results, your work won’t have any impact!
Have you ever been stuck googling about an antibody that will be essential to your new research project, but unsure which one will mark your target the best, or even which one will work for your application? Like many scientists, I have spent hours sifting through comments and ...
In a lab, you may have heard the phrase gram negative or positive being used to describe a species of bacteria, but what does it actually mean? What relevance does it have on the structure of a bacteria species and how it can be used in a lab? Here we’ll be talking about the ins ...
I didn’t truly address the question of what I wanted to do when I grew up until I was all but finished my undergraduate degree (and I hope I’m not alone in this sentiment). Entering the final semester of a neuroscience major, I was struck with the realisation that I didn’t want ...
From the beginning, one of Addgene’s goals was to ensure the scientific community obtained high-quality data for our DNA-based reagents. Not only do we extract as much information as possible from depositing laboratories and associated publications, but our quality control (QC) ...
The natural CRISPR locus of a bacteria host encodes multiple guide RNAs (gRNAs) on a single array to target the genome of the invading phage pathogen. Over the past decade, CRISPR tools have leveraged such host-defense mechanisms to enable multiplex gene editing in a variety of ...
If you're interested in sharing your science, one of the big questions you'll be faced with is "how?" How are you going convey your information to your audience? There's so many ways options available to today's science communications: podcasts, blogging, videos, lectures, ...
This post was originally written in 2014 by Kendall Morgan and updated in 2022 by Lucie Wilson. Lucie is an Addgene co-op from Northeastern University. There can be no doubt that CRISPR/Cas9 technology has been a breakthrough for the genome-editing field. It has the possibility ...
We are now at the second post in our Summer SciComm series and it’s time for one of my favorite scicomm bandstands: cognitive load.
Welcome to our Summer SciComm Series, where we’ll be talking about science communication, best practices in the field, and even getting into some active science communication research.
As a student at Northeastern University, you are expected to spend at least one semester (the majority spend two to three) working in your chosen field. This cooperative education experience (co-op) is what has brought me, a second year bioengineering student, to Addgene. I am ...
Every few months we highlight a subset of the new plasmids and viral preps in the repository through our hot plasmids articles. These articles provide brief summaries of recent plasmid deposits and we hope they'll make it easier for you to find and use the plasmids you need. If ...
Did you catch our April AAV webinar with Tim Miles, PhD, Director of the CLOVER Center at CalTech? If so, you may have submitted a question that didn’t get answered live - but he kindly took some time to address all your unanswered questions via text! (well, maybe not all of ...
The weather is finally warming up in Boston and that means summer is right around the corner. Here at Addgene, we’re always inspired by the new seasons, so we've made some big summer plans this year!
Many, many techniques are available to assess protein-protein interactions. One popular approach is to fuse a protein of interest to each part of a split fluorescent protein (FP) and measure the signal produced when the candidate proteins’ interaction brings the pieces of the FP ...
It is a well known fact if a multicopy variant of a gene exists, there must be assays that researchers can use to quantify said copies. They do so using copy number variation (CNV) assays. There are several varieties of these, but in this blog post, we're going to focus on ...
I love Addgene's new Antibody Guide and not just because I helped create it. But while antibodies, as the OG (as the kids say) affinity reagents deserved to be celebrated, there are many other amazing affinity reagents we just didn't have the space to give proper credit to. ...
This post was originally written by Tyler Ford in 2018. It was updated by guest blogger Abhi Aggarwal in 2022. Recent updates to iGluSnFR and SF-iGluSnFR have made it clear that it’s time to update our iGluSnFR post! Here, we look at the origins of the system and explore ...
Addgene has recently announced the launch of an open-access recombinant antibody resource called NABOR (Neuroscience AntiBody Open Resource). The antibodies distributed through NABOR are recombinant antibodies expressed from plasmids that have been deposited with Addgene. Here, ...
FLIS and Flies Drosophila, more commonly known as fruit flies, have been an important animal model for research, particularly genetics research, for decades. Its short life cycle, reasonably close genetic homology to humans, and small size have allowed scientists to use it as a ...
Addgene is thrilled to announce the launch of our latest community resource: Recombinant Antibodies! In addition to plasmids and viral vectors, you’ll now be able to order ready-to-use antibodies for your experiments directly from Addgene.
Your new antibody has arrived, hooray! Before you jump straight into the exciting new experiments that you’ve been planning, it is a good idea to pause and make sure that your antibody has been appropriately validated so that you can have confidence in your results. But what is ...
Picture this: you’ve been assigned an exciting new project aimed at understanding how a critical cellular pathway is regulated. You’ve read all the background papers you could get your hands on, formulated a hypothesis, and planned out your key experiments. Unsurprisingly, many ...
Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) is an extremely useful technique that provides insight into protein:DNA interactions. ChIP works by using antibodies to capture protein:DNA complexes with antibodies specific to your protein(s) of interest. Once the complex is captured, it is ...
A 2017 survey found that many researchers feel they lack formal training in a variety of transferable skills. At Addgene, we've set out to fill this gap by highlighting that researchers learn many transferable skills while working in the lab and by offering advice on areas where ...
Selectable transgene markers for plant transformation fall into two main categories: antibiotic/herbicide resistance and fluorescent proteins. Selection using resistance genes usually involves killing the untransformed seedlings or callus (undifferentiated plant cell culture), ...
You've been following along on our journey to name our new antibody mascot, who's joining us in preparation for our upcoming affinity reagent distribution launch - and we're excited to say our long naming journey is at an end! Their name is...(drum roll, please!)...
The hardest part of any revolutionary discovery, including CRISPR, is turning potential into impact. In molecular and cellular biology, this happens through the development of tools that exploit and expand our current knowledge. The Abudayyeh-Gootenberg lab (also called the ...
What is the universal thing that unites all scientists? Curiosity? Passion? A love of learning? No. Or at least not entirely. What truly unites us all is the frustration of an experiment failing because of a small, avoidable mistake. Or worse, when you're trapped in a pattern of ...
It’s not just the antibodies that matter when you’re prepping for your experiment - there are a number of outside factors that need to be considered as well. In this post, we’ll touch on antibody storage, buffer considerations, and give just the lightest of nods towards ...
Ahem, ahem, drum roll please! It's time to announce the winners of our 2021 Deck the Lab Contest!
A recent survey of PhDs found that many researchers feel they lack formal training in a variety of transferable skills. At Addgene we're helping to fill this gap by both helping researchers recognize their MANY transferable skills learned while working in the lab and offering ...
If you work in a lab that regularly does immunoimaging, there’s likely a large collection of antibodies in your lab. Perhaps you’re even in that mythical place where antibodies are well-organized, documented, and easy to find (though we might need to see it to believe it.) As ...
I first realized I might have some minor skills in conflict resolution after college, when I discovered that many of my old suitemates stopped talking to each other if I was not there to arbitrate for them. They were different people with some very different opinions, and some ...
One of our favorite holiday traditions is our annual Twelve Days of CRISPR campaign! But if you missed our tweets featuring the best of CRISPR in 2021 and useful resources, fear not! You can find all of them here.
If you’ve been following our antibody blog posts, then you likely already have a good idea of the basics of immunoimaging. A scientist conjugates an antibody with a signaling molecule, the antibody binds to a protein, and then voila! Wherever your protein of interest is, a ...
This post was contributed by guest blogger Daniel M. Sapozhnikov, a graduate student in the laboratory of Dr. Moshe Szyf at McGill University. Some enzymatic fusions are godsends. Tethering dCas9 to the histone acetyltransferase p300 or the DNA methyltransferase DNMT3A allows ...
Immunoprecipitation (IP) uses immobilized antibodies, or immunoglobulins, to isolate a specific protein out of a complex mix. Using this technique, users can look for the presence or absence of a protein, determine if a protein is up or downregulated, examine a protein’s ...
It’s finally December, and here at Addgene HQ in Massachusetts that means it’s time for near-freezing temperatures, our first of the season snow flurries, dusting off the winter coats and hats, and our annual Deck The Lab holiday decorating contest!
A 2017 survey found that many researchers feel they lack formal training in a variety of transferable skills. At Addgene, we've set out to fill this gap by both highlighting that researchers do learn MANY transferable skills while working in the lab and by offering advice on ...
It’s time for another edition of “What’s New in CRISPR” - where we highlight a few of the newest CRISPR plasmids available at Addgene. If you want to read more content related to CRISPR technology, subscribe to our CRISPR blog content. In this post we will cover: Miniature ...
Immunofluorescence (IF), is an immunoassay that brings to light the cellular world. The technique allows you to ask questions like: “Where does my protein of interest live within a cell,” “Does this disease change the architecture of my cells,” or “How does this mutation impact ...
Many neuroscience experiments that require gene expression in a specific cell type rely on transgenic models that express recombinases like Cre or Flp in their cells of interest and recombinase-dependent AAV vectors for selective transgene expression. While this is a powerful ...
There are a lot of ways to classify antibodies: monoclonal, polyclonal, scFvs, nanobodies, and the list goes on. But have you heard of an antibody isotype? An isotype determines several key characteristics of an antibody as well as the role it plays in an immune response. But ...
This post was contributed by guest blogger Daria Shcherbakova, a faculty member at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Several sets of near-infrared fluorescent proteins (NIR FPs) and biosensors have been created recently. As developers of many of these probes, we decided to ...
Every few months we highlight a subset of the new plasmids and viral preps in the repository through our hot plasmids articles. These articles provide brief summaries of recent plasmid deposits and we hope they'll make it easier for you to find and use the plasmids you need.
Working on the scientific support team at Addgene, I get to see everything that can go wrong with a plasmid. One of the most frequent problems that I help troubleshoot involves viral vectors and plasmids with repeating sequences. Repeating sequences within a plasmid can undergo ...
New to the lab? Or looking for ways to supplement your teaching? You’re in luck! Addgene’s new Intro to the Lab Bench series was born from the shift to remote learning due to COVID-19. We had many protocols for plasmid cloning and working with viral vectors, but what we lacked ...
Antibodies are used in many different experiments that require scientists to detect proteins in their samples. One technique that relies heavily on antibodies is ELISA, which stands for Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay. ELISA are used to detect proteins within a 96- or ...
We’re making some moves over here at Addgene...and they’re looping?
What is polymerase chain reaction? If you have ever worked in a molecular biology laboratory you have likely done a polymerase chain reaction (PCR). PCR is an in vitro method in which a small amount of DNA can be copied many many times in a short time period. PCR was invented in ...
We are excited to announce the recipients of this year’s Michael Davidson and Roger Tsien Commemorative Conference Awards. Congratulations to the five winners!
We’re happy to introduce the newest member on Addgene’s Board of Directors, Bart Newland. Newland is General Counsel at Atalanta, an early-stage biotech company that is developing RNAi therapeutics to treat neurodegenerative diseases. He has earned a B.S. in microbiology and ...
Every few months we highlight a subset of the new plasmids and viral preps in the repository through our hot plasmids articles. These articles provide brief summaries of recent plasmid deposits and we hope they'll make it easier for you to find and use the plasmids you need. ...
Have you ever wanted to measure expression of your protein of interest in a single cell? Or perhaps, you need to analyze a specific subset of cells in a complex population. Have you spent hours in the biosafety cabinet with cloning rings or following labor-intensive limiting ...
When you’re searching for an antibody to use in your next experiment, you’ll probably notice a lot of options to choose from. In this article we’ll cover polyclonal antibodies, one of the many different types of antibodies available (others you’ll encounter include monoclonal ...
Originally published Apr 30, 2020 and last updated Jul 12, 2021. What started out as a small collection of plasmids for coronavirus research, including a handful of plasmids that have been in the repository for many years, has now grown into a collection of over 2,400 plasmids, ...
We often think of DNA as inert. It generally stays put, which makes it easy to locate in a genome. But there is a type of mobile DNA, called a transposon, that’s a bit hyperactive and likes to jump around from one location in the genome to another. This jumping is what caught ...
If you’re just getting started using antibodies in your experiments, you may be curious about all of the different kinds of antibodies that are available. One common type of antibody is a monoclonal antibody. But what does that mean, and how do monoclonal antibodies differ from ...
Over the past several months, we’ve seen the emergence of several SARS-CoV-2 variants coincide with increased vaccination efforts. So, how effective are the current vaccines against the variants?
🎶 “Bye bye L-arabinose drive Put your cultures in the shaker Turn the LEDs on And when you want You can just turn them off No need for any wash No need for any wash…” 🎶 - Barbara Di Ventura If you follow Barbara Di Ventura on Twitter, you might have seen the video of her ...
This post was contributed by guest blogger Eleanor Wang, a Research Specialist in Patrick Hsu's lab at UC Berkeley. Most of the scientists I’ve met began doing research in their undergraduate years. We each have a unique “origin story,” but taking the first step into the world ...
When you think of antibodies, you probably think of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). mAbs have been around since 1975 thanks to the Nobel prize winning work of Milstein and Köhler who developed hybridoma technology. But what about single chain fragment variables (scFvs)? scFvs ...
This post was contributed by Ignacio Amigo and María Hernández Sánchez from Crowdfight. In March 2020, while most of the world was locked down, a South African company wanted to test if a type of antibodies from an Andean mammal called alpaca could neutralize the SARS-CoV-2 ...
Would you buy and use a plasmid if it didn’t include any plasmid sequence data? Of course not. Unfortunately, the vast majority of antibodies are supplied with no sequence information, leading to problems with reproducibility and an inability to improve upon these critical ...
Creating great educational science videos is tough. Is the content accurate? Are we conveying complex ideas in the easiest way possible? Are the shots clear enough for the audience? As Addgene’s Science Video Production Specialist, I’m constantly thinking about ways to improve ...
This post was contributed by Adriana Galvan, an associate professor at Emory University School of Medicine. Optogenetics and chemogenetics are powerful tools to modulate the activity of neurons and other brain cells. Since the opsins or chemogenetic receptors used in these ...
If you were born before 1985, you might remember going to the store and buying CDs when you wanted to hear a piece of music. It was tough to share or remix the songs, the CDs could get scratched over time, and it was difficult to keep track of growing collections of music. I ...
You've done the research, analyzed your data, and made your tables and figures. Now it's time to write. Sometimes, it's hard to get those words out and onto the screen and transform your work into a paper or a grant. Here’s a list of tools and resources that might help make ...
Looking to kick your Zoom background game to the next level? Have you been using Zoom’s default backgrounds all year and want a change? Addgene has you covered. Today we’re releasing 11 bold science-themed backgrounds! Show off your favorite reagent, scientific technique, or ...
To deliver genes using lentiviral vectors, you need an envelope protein on the virus’s surface and a corresponding receptor in the host cell. Some of these envelope-receptor pairings are broad, allowing delivery into many cell types, while others are specific, allowing delivery ...
Originally published Apr 13, 2021 and last updated Aug 12, 2021. This post was contributed by guest bloggers, Yiwen Zhang, a Ph.D. candidate in the Yang Lab, Qi Li, a lecturer at Sichuan Normal University, Jieze Zhang, an intern in the Yang Lab, and Sheng Yang, a professor in ...
We’re so excited to share some good news with you: with contributions from depositors around the globe, we’re now sharing over 100,000 reagents including plasmids, ready-to-use viral preps, pooled libraries, kits, and cloning grade DNA!
Originally published Aug 3, 2017 and last updated Apr 6, 2021 by Will Arnold. Introducing NGS in 2017 for all incoming plasmids was a big change for Addgene - we had used Sanger sequencing for quality control for over ten years. Now, thanks to a generous donation by the Hirsh ...
Update Apr 8, 2021: While this contest is over, we will host other contests in the future. Subscribe to the blog to stay in the know! No pranks, just fun and games this April Fool’s Day on the Addgene blog. We’ve been mostly working remotely for the last year to give our lab and ...
