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Archive for the ‘Bio-Rad Promotions’ Category

High-Performance Immunoprecipitation at an Affordable Price

 :: Posted by American Biotechnologist on 08-12-2014

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. announced that it has launched its SureBeads Magnetic Bead System, which provides researchers with a faster and easier alternative to agarose beads for immunoprecipitation for as low as half the price of other available magnetic bead systems. Benefits include reduced antibody consumption and sample loss, very low nonspecific binding, and optimized IgG binding capacity.

Researchers have traditionally used agarose beads to precipitate and enrich proteins prior to western blotting or mass spectrometry. This process is time-consuming and labor-intensive, and often causes the beads to perform poorly. Since agarose beads are porous, the antibody can remain trapped inside the bead and therefore is unable to properly bind the protein of interest, requiring researchers to use more antibody.

Although magnetic beads are often more expensive, they are an attractive alternative to agarose beads for several reasons, including ease of use at the bench: magnetization is faster and more convenient than centrifugation for sample precipitation and washing steps. With the launch of the SureBeads System, scientists now have access to a high-performance, cost-effective magnetic bead system.

SureBeads Protein A and G Conjugated Magnetic Beads are designed to work with the proprietary SureBeads 16-Tube Magnetic Rack, which offers a one-piece removable magnetic strip to improve sample handling and eliminate repeated centrifugation steps, so researchers are able to achieve results up to six times faster.

“I have used magnetic bead–based systems for more than three years now, and the quality of the new SureBeads System is among the best in the field,” said Oliver Wueseke, PhD student at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden, Germany. “The real innovation resides in the rack. The slidable magnet, preferred fixation of tubes in the rack, and spacing between tubes that allows easy access to the tube lids make the SureBeads System easy to handle, faster, and more convenient.“

Visit www.bio-rad.com/NewSureBeads for more information about the SureBeads System and to learn about current product promotions.

Get a Free Sample of TGX Stain-Free™ FastCast™ Acrylamide Solutions

 :: Posted by American Biotechnologist on 06-26-2014

If you hand cast your own gels, TGX Stain-Free FastCast acrylamide solutions will give you a fresh perspective. Request a free sample and experience how these innovative solutions increase the efficiency of your 1-D electrophoresis or western blotting experiments. It truly is happiness in a bottle.

Faster Performance

  • Achieve electrophoretic run times as short as 20 minutes
  • Enjoy protein transfers in as little as 3 minutes using the TransBlot® Turbo™ transfer system

Stain-Free Visualization*

  • Monitor the success of electrophoresis and transfer steps without additional staining
  • Visualize proteins in your gel or blot in less than 5 minutes with Bio-Rad’s stain-free enabled imaging systems

Longer Shelf Life

  • Gels last up to 1 month at 4°C after casting
  • Shelf life of acrylamide solutions is 1 year at room temperature
CLICK TO EXPAND

CLICK TO EXPAND

* The Quick Start Guide to Stain-Free Imaging provides step-by-step instructions on how to obtain stain-free images from TGX Stain-Free gels. If you do not have access to a Bio-Rad stain-free enabled imager, your gels can be stained using traditional staining methods.

Bio-Rad Laboratories Awarded Best New Life Sciences Product of 2013

 :: Posted by American Biotechnologist on 05-01-2014

SelectScience was delighted to announce the QX200™ Droplet Digital™ PCR System, by Bio-Rad, as the winner of the Scientists’ Choice Award for Best New Life Sciences Product of 2013. The award was presented to Bio-Rad at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2014.

Click on the photo below to navigate to the SelectScience website and view the video.

select science ddpcr award

Designing the Perfect Quantitative Western Blot

 :: Posted by American Biotechnologist on 04-02-2014

A methods article published yesterday provides a rigorous and concise workflow with specific instructions on how to produce and analyze quantitative data using western blot experiments. The paper, coauthored by Bio-Rad scientists and published in BioMed Research International, also highlights recently introduced technologies that improve reproducibility. The result is a powerful, step-by-step guide to obtaining quantitative and reproducible densitometric data from western blots regardless of the specific experiment.

Although western blotting is a well-established laboratory technique, it has recently come under fire as a quantitative method because extreme care must be taken when generating and interpreting the resulting data.

The technique is challenging and requires following a rigorous methodology to achieve reproducible and quantitative data. According to a recent survey of more than 750 labs, 41% of researchers say their western blots fail a quarter of the time.

Dr. Aldrin Gomes, an assistant professor at University of California, Davis, agrees that flawed western blots are not unusual. To compare expression of a protein of interest from sample to sample, protein abundance is commonly normalized to a housekeeping gene. “When I see a large, dense band for the protein of interest or the housekeeping protein, I cringe,” says Gomes. That dense band usually means the protein of interest or housekeeping protein was no longer within the assay’s linear dynamic range. No accurate quantitative data can be extracted from such blots.

Sean Taylor discusses the BioMed Research International paper he coauthored.

Another common reason for failure of quantitative western blots is flawed or incomplete protocols, according to Sean Taylor, the paper’s lead author and a Bio-Rad field application scientist (watch a video of him discussing the paper on the left). To address this, Taylor’s review pays special attention to experimental design and sample preparation and discusses proper definition of the linear dynamic range of protein loading, all key factors for generating meaningful quantitative western blot data.

Taylor also introduces more advanced concepts to improve reproducibility, simplify workflow, and reduce the time and cost of western blotting. One such technique is stain-free total protein normalization, which over the past year has proven superior to using housekeeping proteins or total protein staining to correct for loading errors.

With this article, Taylor hopes researchers now have a simple guide to ensure quantitative and reproducible western blot data for all research fields that rely on this technique.

To read the open access research article, visit http://bit.ly/1kCAOcr.

For additional resources please consult Bio-Rad’s guide to Troubleshooting Western Blots.

Life Since the Double Helix

 :: Posted by American Biotechnologist on 02-18-2014

The discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA 60 years ago led to a revolution in biological science, opening the floodgates for myriad subsequent discoveries and spawning new fields of research. Bio-Rad has been there from the beginning, helping scientists, educators, and clinicians advance basic research and improve healthcare. As we celebrate Bio-Rad’s diamond anniversary, we reflect on the major events in the evolution of life science research, from biochemistry to molecular biology and beyond, and the emergence of modern biotechnology.

Read more…