Okay Do-it-yourself Biology is coming of age, and we all seem to know that it won't be too long before the Feds step in and try to put a halt to all of the garage science. Until then, however, it seems as though the DIYers are going to make it to the mainstream news. Or at least to the NPR, check out this link http://www.npr.org/2011/05/22/136464041/biopunks-tinker-with-the-building-blocks-of-life

Nice job NPR..keep up the great investigative journalism..

So about 12 years ago I ran an oligonucleotide synthesis business.  There was as the time a wonderful observation that the presence of G residues next to a fluorescein dye would produce some level of quenching. 
That spurred my biochemical motors into action, and with a bit of brute force and biochemistry knowledge our lab came up with a great alternative to the guanosine quenching. The alternative is terrific because it could work with any underlying sequence...a patent was filed,... Read full post

Good news the automation of genome sequencing is closer at hand with the recent news of  instruments from Caliper in the mix. 
I remember a few years back when I spent some time with the folks form Caliper as they were bringing their Swinger online with the Roche 480 platform. That real-time instrument combined with a robotic arm was sure a sight to see.
Now if sample preparation could enter the dawning age of rapid diagnostics that would be something, at Fluoresentric we have been... Read full post

I love to see online oligonucleotide design programs, they are so wonderful because they are free.  One such program at IDT is great, but the only problem that I see with these programs is that they assume that just analyzing the oligonucleotide structure itself is sufficient to make for a great PCR assay.  Free is good, to be sure, but a little investment is assay success certainly makes the assay development work go more smoothly.  At Fluoresentric, we offer a simple and... Read full post

Chloroquine resistance is on the rise and that is no surprise, the incidence of drug resistant organisms is expanding exponentially.  Why? Primarily due to the un-restricted use of anti-biotics and in this case anti-malarials.  Our company at Signal Diagnostics (www.signaldiagnostics.com) has been working on this now and future problem with our drug resistance screening technology.  Check out this article from the Times of India,
Drug resistance poses new threat to malaria
If... Read full post