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Since the start of the CRISPR revolution, Addgene has distributed over 100,000 CRISPR plasmids. But that’s not our only job - we strive to also give you high-quality educational resources to help you do better research. CRISPR is an incredibly fast-moving field, and we want to make it easy for you to keep up with new developments (and, of course, find plasmids that will be useful to you.)

In meetings, in surveys, on Twitter - there is one thing we've heard over and over from our users: "Please, please improve your plasmid maps!" After thoughtful design, vetting, and tweaking, we’re excited to announce that our plasmid and sequence displays are now powered by GSL Biotech's SnapGene Server Software. With the backing of SnapGene’s sequence viewer software and extensive feature library, our updated plasmid and sequence displays are now much easier to interpret and analyze at a glance. For a quick look at just how much things have improved, check out the example below. Our old map is on the left while the SnapGene powered map is on the right (click here to see the new map in action). Read on to learn more about the improvements we’ve implemented and how they’ll make it easier for you to find the plasmids you need. We'll be monitoring and improving the maps further after this initial launch so stay tuned for more updates.

Videos can save researchers time by quickly relaying key points about an unfamiliar topic or lab process. Along with our role as a plasmid repository, Addgene aims to be a vital educational resource for scientists around the world. With that in mind, we are very excited to debut our brand new Addgene Videos page!

We've been updating our plasmid validation processes to make it easier for you to find what you need in the repository, but we're also making it easier than ever to deposit with Addgene. Our plasmid deposit process can be broken down into three simple steps:

1. Send Plasmid Information to Addgene
2. Materials Transfer Agreement approval (MTA)
3. Send Plasmids to Addgene and Quality Control 

Steps 2 and 3 are usually very easy - our tech transfer team will communicate with your university directly to make sure the MTA is taken care of and, once we have all of your plasmid data, we’ll send you prepaid shipping materials (i.e. a deposit kit) with instructions on how to send liquid DNA or bacterial streaks of your plasmid back to us. Our scientists will contact you if any issues arise during the QC process. As the depositing scientist, you will have the most involvement with step 1 and, while data entry can be a chore, we’ve made it easier than ever to send us your plasmid information with the Deposit Spreadsheet.

Cancer – a term familiar to almost every person regardless of profession, race, or gender. Almost no other disease receives as many billions of dollars in funding or as much attention collectively from researchers. Scientists, however, have yet to slay the beast. On a global scale, tens of millions of new cancer cases arise and millions of people die from cancer-related complications each year. Despite these grim statistics, new strategies for attacking cancer are yielding promising results in the laboratory, and Addgene is accelerating this research by helping to make new cancer resources easily accessible to the research community.