Farewell 2019, and hello 2020! As we're gearing up to start a new decade, we’re also looking back at the last year of scientific discovery. We’ve documented many new tools on the Addgene blog and have created and updated guides on various topics in biology over the past year: CRISPR, optogenetics, chemogenetics, plasmids, fluorescent proteins, careers, and more. These resources can now be found in one place: the Educational Resources page.
So let’s get to it. Here’s the top 10 blog posts from the year.
10. Hot Plasmids - March 2019 - Anti-CRISPR, 2in1 Cloning, Fluorescent Voltage Indicators, and Photoswitchable Proteins by Cary Valley, Shreya Vedantam, Michelle Cronin, and Angela Abitua- Thanks to a team effort from the Addgenies, we’re able to feature some recently deposited plasmids every quarter. The “hot plasmids” from last March were quite popular and represent the diversity of tools we share on behalf of scientists.
9. Plasmids 101: Positive and Negative Selection for Plasmid Cloning by Jennifer Tsang
- There are many strategies for finding your clones in an experiment. Read this blog post for some positive selection (ex: antibiotic selection and auxotrophy) and negative selection (ex: toxin-antitoxin systems and sacB counter-selection) tools used in cloning.
8. Bright Monomeric Fluorescent Proteins: mNeonGreen, mTFP1, and mWasabi by Jennifer Tsang
- Learn about mNeonGreen, mTFP1, and mWasabi and find plasmids containing these fluorescent proteins at Addgene.
- Addgene depositor and guest blogger Erik Snapp breaks down how to prepare a chalk talk for an academic job interview including defining your research vision, organizing your vision into a chalk talk, and tips for practicing.
- RNA aptamers, which are nucleic acid sequences that fluoresce upon binding a small molecule, are often named after vegetables; Broccoli, Spinach, and Corn, for example. Learn more about the aptamer soup in this blog post.
- There are many model organisms people are using for their research. In this blog post, we’ve covered five model organisms: mouse, fruit fly, yeast, zebrafish, and worm.
4. Early Career Researcher Toolbox: Free Tools for Making Scientific Graphics by Beth Kenkel
- Find a round-up of tools you can use for making scientific graphics. PS: they’re free.
3. Fluorescent Proteins 101: GFP Fusion Proteins - Making the Right Connection by Joachim Goedhart
- Guest blogger Joachim Goedhart shares some strategies for generating GFP fusion proteins. From considering protein size and shape, linker sequences, and fusion location, there are many choices to make.
- Prime editing is a new CRISPR technique from David Liu’s lab that gives more control and flexibility to CRISPR editing. Using a fusion between Cas9 and reverse transcriptase and a prime editing guide RNA, it can introduce insertions, deletions, and all possible base-to-base changes.
- The introduction of nucleic acids into bacteria or eukaryotic cells is a common technique in molecular biology and scientific research. Get an overview of these methods in this blog post.
Hope you’ve enjoyed going through some of these top blog posts. We’d also like to use this time to hear some feedback from the community. Are there any topics you particularly like or maybe something you’d like to see more of? Let us know by leaving a comment or emailing us at blog@addgene.org.
Thank you again for a fantastic year and happy reading. Best wishes on your research in 2020!
Additional resources on the Addgene Blog
- Read other Addgene news
- Find the most recent plasmid blog posts
- Find the most recent CRISPR blog posts
Resources at Addgene
- Browse the repository
- Find educational resources at Addgene
- Search for plasmids at Addgene
Topics: Addgene News
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