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This post was contributed by Kurt Swanson a structural biologist and protein engineer currently working at Sanofi Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, MA.

When I joined Sanofi/Genzyme nearly three years ago I decided it was time to get in shape. After three kids, I had put on typical middle age weight and “exercise” consisted of taking walks in the mall. I took action, joined a gym, and started running on a treadmill. After being with the company for about six months, I learned there was a Genzyme-based running team called Running for Rare Disease that runs on behalf of the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD). NORD raises money and awareness for rare disease and helps patients find the correct treatments, if available. As part of the team, I started adding mile after mile on my poor, poor legs.

This post was contributed by guest blogger, Krissy Lyon, a PhD candidate in Neuroscience at Harvard University.

Just as computers, cell phones, and cars become more technologically advanced leaving earlier versions obsolete, the techniques we use in lab are replaced by improved versions that save both time and money. Yet, knowledge of historical techniques comes in handy whether you are perusing classic papers or are brainstorming new technological innovations. Let’s take a look at three historical techniques: southern blotting, restriction mapping, and sequencing gels, as well as their modern equivalents and see what we can learn from their evolution.

We’ve dug into the data from our repository to find our most requested plasmid in 2015. In line with all of the exciting developments surrounding CRISPR genome engineering in the past year, we're excited to announce that the plasmid most requested from the Addgene repository in 2015 was...

2015 has been an exciting year for the Addgene blog. We’ve released over 80 posts on a diverse array of topics pertinent to the research community, two eBooks (Management for Scientists and the Plasmids 101 2nd ed), and have started providing recorded interviews with Addgene community members. In addition we’ve experienced incredible growth with our readership expanding from ~10,000 users per month in November 2014 to ~30,000 users per month in November 2015.

Here at Addgene we’re getting into the holiday spirit and we hope you are, too! Bluegene is eager to decorate the lab but his short arms are causing him some difficulty…

To give him some inspiration, we’d love to see how you’re decorating your lab for the upcoming wintertime festivities!

Help us spread some cheer by snapping a photo of you and your labmates celebrating the holidays and tweeting it with the tags #DeckTheLab and @Addgene. Christmas, Hanukkah, ugly sweaters, Flannel Fridays, Festivus— you name it, we want to see it.