Beth Kenkel is currently a research scientist at a cell therapy company. She is particularly interested in science communication and viral vectors. Follow Beth on twitter @ElizabethKenkel.
Optogenetics is a neuroscience method that lets you fire neurons with the flick of a light switch. Neurons are not typically persuaded to fire when light is shined on them, but the expression of light-gated ion channels such as channelrhodopsins (ChRs) makes them ...
Adeno-associated virus (AAV) has many features which make it a great viral vector, but its packaging capacity is limited to ~4.7kb, or roughly half the packaging limits of lentiviral and adenoviral vectors. While many transgene will fit within this limit, some like prime ...
So you have this awesome experiment you want to do, but it requires some AAV. You’ve never worked with AAV before, but you aren’t going to let that stop you. Where do you start? Turns out like all good experiments, making AAV starts with some plasmids. You just need three ...
Originally published May 23, 2017 and last updated Jul 23, 2020 by Jennifer Tsang. CRISPR-Cas technology is constantly evolving. Variants of Cas proteins can be used for genome editing, activating gene expression, repressing gene expression, and much more. But there’s one thing ...
Congratulations, you’ve just landed an interview for an industry job! You’ve worked hard to earn this opportunity and are excited for this next step. But wait, now you feel a little panicked. You’ve never had an industry interview before. What should you do to get ready for this ...
Originally published Dec 7, 2017 and updated Jul 2, 2020. Promoters may be the star of gene regulation, but enhancers and chromatin looping play important supporting roles. Enhancers are cis regulatory DNA sequences that, when bound by transcription factors, can increase a ...
Adeno-associated virus (AAV) is a popular tool for gene delivery, but it has a drawback: how do you ensure your gene goes where you want it to? Knowing that a gene is expressed in a particular cell type is important not only for translational research, such as gene therapy, but ...
Before you reach for that silica spin column, stop to consider some ways to purify DNA without a kit. DNA purification kits have advantages: they are convenient and provide uniform, consistent results. But they are also less accessible due to their expense and requirement for ...
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