Molecular Biology

As promised in the last month’s blog we are back with chapter 2 of sample collection and handling. Here we focus on RNA extraction, handling, and storage.

One of the ever-intriguing question most of us ask is ‘who we are’ or ‘where do we come from’? To answer this simple yet challenging question one should focus on to our genome. Dr. Svante Pääbo from his groundbreaking research have contributed immensely to our understanding of the human evolution for which he was awarded Nobel prize in Physiology or Medicine 2022. He and his team from years of research was able to shed light on human evolution which have created an entirely new field of genomics termed Paleogenomics.

This post was originally posted on June 3rd 2020.

In case the name doesn’t give it away, multiplex real-time PCR involves amplifying multiple DNA or RNA targets simultaneously in a single PCR reaction. This requires the presence of a specific pair of primers and a complementary DNA-binding probe for each target under study.

This post was originally posted on October 28th 2020.

Restriction enzymes or restriction endonucleases recognise short, specific DNA sequences known as restriction recognition sites, and make double-stranded cuts at or adjacent to these sites. These enzymes are naturally occurring in bacteria and archaea where they function as an ancient sequence-directed immune system, chopping up phage DNA at restriction sites in the genome of the invading phage.

Welcome back to our next generation sequencing (NGS) 101 mini-series! In Part 1, we introduced the basics of NGS and provided an overview of some of its major applications. In this follow-up, we take a look at the typical NGS workflow including tips for good sample collection and NGS library preparation.

Next generation sequencing, or simply NGS, has completely changed the way we do biological research. Also referred to as massively parallel sequencing, NGS offers high-throughput and high-resolution methods to decipher nucleic acid sequences, which provides important clues about protein function, regulatory and signalling pathways, mechanisms of human, plant and animal disease, diagnostics, and much more.

This blog post will introduce you to the basics of NGS and provide an overview of some of its major applications.