Reflections and Looking Ahead

Twenty years of accelerating scientific discovery. Over 150,000 plasmids empowering researchers worldwide. Countless breakthroughs enabled by shared resources. As we step into 2025, these milestones remind us of the extraordinary impact that happens when scientists come together to share their work.

The power of community in 2024

In 2024, your trust in Addgene helped unlock unprecedented scientific collaboration. Together, we distributed 184,824 materials to 39,529 scientists across 86 countries. Even more remarkably, 1,160 labs from 522 organizations in 41 countries enriched our repository with 15,020 new plasmids — a testament to the scientific community's commitment to open science and shared progress.

But numbers tell only part of the story. This year, we made significant strides in making science more accessible and reliable. We continue to expand our educational content supporting the tools in our collection, such as blogs describing viral vector serotypes, or hundreds of Data Hub reports detailing antibody experimental results. We also redesigned our website to make it easier to find what you need and to bring it in line with current Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). These changes mean our content is both available and accessible to a wider community of users. 

We also made scientific gains by adding long-read sequencing capabilities to complement our next-generation sequencing, setting new standards for plasmid quality control. Through our partnership with the Institute for Protein Innovation (IPI), we expanded a growing collection of thoroughly characterized antibodies, and our contributions to key research papers are already inspiring higher standards in antibody use (Ayoubi et al., 2024; Kahn et al., 2024).

Building tomorrow’s science today

Your voices helped shape our journey throughout the year. Through surveys, interviews, and countless conversations both online and in-person, you helped us understand how Addgene can better serve the global scientific community. As we enter 2025, your feedback continues to guide our innovation. 

In response to a demand for more AAV viral vector options, we launched AAV Packaged on Request, a service that dramatically expands and simplifies your viral vector options. Almost any AAV transfer plasmid in our repository can now be packaged on demand in five distinct serotypes, offering you unparalleled flexibility.

But this is just the beginning. We’re working toward giving you more choice in how you receive plasmids — as DNA or bacterial stabs — ‌and reinventing our search experience so you can find exactly what you need, faster. We’re also building a portal to easily share sequences and characterization data for over 150,000 plasmids, empowering bioinformaticians, data scientists, and developers to unlock the potential of our extensive plasmid database — because we believe that innovation flourishes when data are shared.

The scientific landscape is evolving rapidly, and with it, the needs of researchers worldwide. Through our growing community on Bluesky, our expanding educational resources, and our commitment to global accessibility, we're equipping every scientist with the tools they need to push the boundaries of discovery.

As I look ahead, I am excited to continue to grow and innovate with your help and guidance. Every plasmid shared, every collaboration formed, and every breakthrough enabled brings us closer to making an impact on humanity's greatest challenges. Thank you for being part of this incredible journey. Together, we're not just sharing research materials — we're accelerating the future of science.

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References

Ayoubi, R., Ryan, J., Gonzalez Bolivar, S., Alende, C., Ruiz Moleon, V., Fotouhi, M., Alqazzaz, M., Southern, K., Alshafie, W., Baker, M. R., Ball, A. R., Callahan, D., Cooper, J. A., Crosby, K., Harvey, K. J., Houston, D. W., Kumaran, R., Rego, M., Schofield, C., … Laflamme, C. (2024). A consensus platform for antibody characterization. Nature Protocols. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41596-024-01095-8

Kahn, R. A., Virk, H., Laflamme, C., Houston, D. W., Polinski, N. K., Meijers, R., Levey, A. I., Saper, C. B., Errington, T. M., Turn, R. E., Bandrowski, A., Trimmer, J. S., Rego, M., Freedman, L. P., Ferrara, F., Bradbury, A. R. M., Cable, H., & Longworth, S. (2024). Antibody characterization is critical to enhance reproducibility in biomedical research. eLife, 13, e100211. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.100211