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To LinkedIn or not to LinkedIn. That is the question.

When presenting on building relationships (also known as “networking”), one of the most common questions I receive is “Do I have to be on LinkedIn?” For anyone who is planning or might need to plan for a career outside academia (that would be pretty much all scientists), a LinkedIn profile is absolutely necessary. If people can’t find you on LinkedIn, you will lose opportunities and hiring managers will think it is odd. For those planning a career in academia, it may not be required, but many academic scientists are starting to see the advantages of using social networking to start, build, and track professional relationships. Here are my seven best tips beyond the basics to get you started.

CRISPR is a simple and versatile tool for genome engineering, but its utility is dependent on its ability to infiltrate cells. Options for CRISPR delivery include plasmid transfection, RNP electroporation, and viral transduction; but these methods aren’t stealthy enough to gain access to some cells and tissues, such as human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs). Nanoblades, a new CRISPR delivery method developed by the Ricci Lab and the T. Ohlmann Lab, adds a covert tool to the CRISPR tool box. 

This post was contributed by Oskar Laur, head of the custom cloning core at Emory University, and Paolo Colombi, a product development scientist at Addgene.

Cloning can be quite an arduous process. The PCR could fail to produce a product, the transformation may not result in any cells, or all the colonies screened might not contain the correct plasmid. There’s a lot that can go wrong! With all the steps in the cloning process, there are also many ways to troubleshoot the cloning experiment. Here are some tips that will help you with your cloning project, and hopefully obtain your coveted plasmid with no substantial delays.

Over the past decades, neuroscientists have made great strides to map brain regions and allocate specific functions to them. Electrical recordings and lesioning studies have been essential for this task. However, most lesioning methods destroy areas larger than intended and may unintentionally remove connecting pathways between other distant regions. They also don’t give any clues about the types of neurons involved or whether their involvement is activating, inhibiting, or modulating. Viral vectors, in contrast, are considerably more versatile and specific in how they manipulate neuronal function, with far fewer side effects compared to lesioning methods -  they may be the key to further unraveling the mysteries of behavior.

Since the beginning of our viral service in 2016, we’ve added many new tools to our inventory of ready-to-use viral vectors. Here are some of the AAV we have released in the last few months. You can also browse our entire AAV inventory.

Our new AAVs include:

• EGFP-expressing AAV for serotype testing
• Calcium sensors and GABA sensors
• Optogenetics
• Recombinases
• And more!