Featured Stories

From using nonspecific polyclonal antibodies to developing monoclonal antibodies from immortalized antibody-producing cells to antibody engineering and generation of antibodies using an animal-free library with billions of antibody fragments to choose from, the antibody technology has seen tremendous advances. Explore where this journey started and what the current trends are and what the human combinatorial antibody library (HuCAL) technology destination has to offer!

Few discoveries have changed the pace of discovery and the types of questions we can ask as drastically and quickly as CRISPR-based genome editing. But where did CRISPR come from? How was it adapted to become such a game-changing genome editing tool? And why are some of its greatest proponents alarmed?

Finding ways to slow or reverse aging intrigues scientists and non-scientists alike. In recent studies, merging the circulatory systems of young and old mice rejuvenated skeletal muscle, brain, and cardiac cells, indicating the presence of a systemic “anti-aging factor” initially thought to be growth differentiation factor 11 (GDF11). However, a recent publication showed that GDF11 actually promotes aging, emphasizing the need for further integrative analysis of the aging process.

What do computers and cells have in common? Can cells function as computers or recording devices? Can a bacterial computer be built? Synthetic biologists have recently developed a platform called SCRIBE (Synthetic Cellular Recorders Integrating Biological Events) to convert genomic DNA into a “tape” for recording and memorizing information. This article explores many interesting aspects of autonomous cellular memory and the potential applications of such living computational systems.

Traditional real-time PCR workflows often limit the number of genes that can be studied, especially when sample amounts are small. A new workflow now allows Mark Kibschull of the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute in Toronto to track the expression of hundreds of genes using a fraction of the starting material required by traditional methods.

Bioradiations, Bio-Rad’s technical resource for life science research, sent out its first issue in 1965. How did this publication evolve in the years that followed? Take a look in our archives and find out!

The Cancer Stem Cell model proposes that a special group of dormant cells in the cancer population plays a key role in tumor development and growth, as well as regeneration following treatment. Find out how researchers Stacy Blain and Danielle Joseph are using the S3 Cell Sorter in studying potential cancer stem cells for multiple myeloma.

Bioradiations.com, the online technical resource for Bio-Rad customers, has been offering a variety of research tips, customer stories, articles of general interest, and in-depth technical reports throughout the year. We also started a special Bench Partner Video Series, providing quick solutions and ideas for possible problems. Here are the highlights of what we presented in the year 2014.

This year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine was awarded to three neuroscientists for their contribution in elucidating the “GPS of the brain”. Explore how this positioning system was deciphered, what the individual components of this system are, and how they integrate together to help us in our spatial memory and navigation.

For a long time X-ray film has been the standard for imaging western blots, but this method has its limitations. Find out how 3 researchers are using the digital tools offered by the new ChemiDoc Touch Imaging System to beat these limitations and improve their blot images.