Avoid the Summertime Blue-Greens— Know about Cyanobacteria Before You Hit the Water

Posted on by Kelly Grooms
Warning sign reading "ALGAE BLOOM – NO SWIMMING" posted in a lake with visible green algae floating on the water's surface, surrounded by lily pads and aquatic plants under a clear blue sky.

The weather is warming up (at least in the Northern Hemisphere). There is nothing more refreshing on a hot summer day than a dip in cool lake waters, so people everywhere are digging out their swimsuits and hitting the beach. Unfortunately, the same warm temperatures that drive us to the beach can also cause a potentially deadly overgrowth of blue-green algae —also called harmful algal blooms (HABs)—in the water of our favorite pond or lake.

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IL-6/STAT3-Regulated Long Non-Coding RNA Is Involved in Colorectal Cancer Progression

Posted on by Michele Arduengo

Researchers from Wenzhou Medical University in China have identified a mechanism involving long non-coding RNAs (lncRNA) that contributes to colorectal cancer (CRC) progression. CRC is the third most common cancer worldwide and is one of the most lethal cancers across the globe. Understanding the molecular mechanisms that underlie the development and progression of CRC is critical to developing biomarkers to detect it and new therapeutics to treat it. 

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Accurate and On-Time: A Look Inside Promega Logistics

Posted on by Promega
Packages move through Kepler Center
Each week, thousands of parcels are shipped to customers from Kepler Center in Madison, WI.

We’re all used to the convenience of online ordering, whether it’s a last-minute birthday gift or a phone charger delivered overnight. That same ease and speed is what scientists expect when ordering critical reagents for their work. At Promega, we get that. That’s why we pledge: You’ll get what you need, when you need it.

For customers in the United States, any order received by 4:00 pm will be delivered the next day. We measure our success in honoring this pledge using a metric called “order fill rate.” Our global order fill rate is consistently above our benchmark of 94.5%, sometimes passing 98%.

But how does that actually happen? With thousands of orders leaving our warehouse every week, it takes more than just good intentions. Here’s a look behind the scenes at how our teams deliver on that promise.

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Understanding Wnt Signaling Through β-Catenin Localization in Live Cells

Posted on by Anna Bennett

The Wnt/β-catenin pathway, long studied in the context of developmental biology, has become increasingly recognized for its role in a wide range of human diseases. Its dysregulation has been implicated in cancer, fibrosis, immune modulation, and neurodegenerative conditions—making it a clinically actionable target across diverse therapeutic areas1. In this blog, we cover the fundamentals of Wnt/β-catenin signaling, highlight ongoing research efforts to understand its role in disease, and show how combining live-cell imaging with luminescent assays complements functional studies.

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Augmenting Human Capabilities with AI Tools

Posted on by Promega

We hear a lot of stories about AI tools helping people complete tasks more quickly, or automating menial or redundant tasks. However, Promega isn’t just interested in speeding things up. We’re focused on leveraging AI tools to help us do things better. All over the organization, employees are leveraging large language models (LLMs) and machine learning systems to accomplish things that weren’t possible before, or to make their work more effective against their goals.

Three employees shared their recent successes, including strengthening supervisory skills, scaling up production processes and training new team members. Each of these examples uses AI in a unique way, while still elevating human expertise, creativity and decision-making.

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What’s Hiding in Your Mussels? 

Posted on by Shannon Sindermann
mussels

Fresh mussels might be a delicacy in many parts of the world, but a new study from Italy suggests they could also be carriers of something much less appetizing: infectious viruses and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). Published in Food and Environmental Virology, Venuti et al. (2025) investigated 60 mussel batches originating from the Campania (Southern Italy), Lazio and Puglia regions—and what they found raises important questions about food safety and environmental monitoring. 

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The Hidden Role of the Immune Microenvironment in ER+ Breast Cancer Resistance

Posted on by Sara Millevolte

Estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancers are among the most common and treatable forms of the disease. Many patients respond well to a combination of endocrine therapy and CDK4/6 inhibitors—drugs like ribociclib that block the cell cycle and prevent tumor growth. But for up to half of these patients, treatment eventually fails. The tumor adapts and continues to grow, presenting a major barrier to developing more effective, long-term cancer therapies.

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Growing Our Understanding of Triple-Negative Breast Cancer in Sub-Saharan Africa: Why Comprehensive Population Data Matters

Posted on by Kelly Grooms
A digitally rendered illustration of a cancer cell superimposed over the African continent. The cancer cell, with a textured, reddish-orange surface and extending tendrils, appears to spread across the dark red map of Africa, symbolizing the impact or presence of cancer on the continent.

In the genomics era, the promise of precision medicine and tailored diagnostics is only as good as the datasets, which makes it imperative that those sets reflect the diversity of the human population. Populations from the African continent, the most genomically diverse region in the world, are underrepresented in current genomic data sets.  Nowhere is closing this data gap more urgent than with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), which has a disproportionately high incidence in women of African descent and limited therapeutic options.

Highlighting why comprehensive population data is so important are the results of a recent study profiling of 30 TNBC tumor samples from Angola and Cape Verde (1).  Whole-exome sequencing (WES), enriched with untranslated regions (UTRs), showed that 86% of somatic variants in these samples had never been reported before. WES can be especially valuable when working with limited or degraded samples, such as the FFPE samples used in this study, because it allows you to gain valuable insights from samples that are impractical for whole-genome sequencing (WGS). This study’s results emphasize the value in expanding omics cancer research so that it includes all populations and areas of the genome.

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Lead with Empathy: Supporting Caregivers in the Workplace

Posted on by Promega

This post is guest-written by Diana Clark, Sr Benefits Manager, Promega

Promega Benefits Manager Diana Clark advocates for policies that support the specific needs of caregivers.

My personal caregiving journey began in my late-30s while raising young children and caring for a terminally ill parent. This period gave me firsthand experience into how difficult it can be to balance all of those responsibilities. I learned about the impossible choices caregivers face, and the toll it can take on a person’s physical, emotional and professional wellbeing.

That personal experience has become a cornerstone of my work as a benefits manager advocating for meaningful, compassionate policies that truly support our employees.

At Promega, we believe people bring their whole selves to work. Supporting caregivers isn’t just an act of kindness – it’s an investment in our people and culture.

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Base Editing Brilliance: David Liu’s Breakthrough Prize and Its Impact

Posted on by Kari Kenefick

On April 5, 2025, Dr. David R. Liu stood in the spotlight at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, California, to receive the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences—one of the most prestigious honors in science.
Dubbed the “Oscars of Science,” the Breakthrough Prizes were launched in 2012 by tech philanthropists including Sergey Brin, Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, Yuri and Julia Milner and Anne Wojcicki. These prizes recognize groundbreaking achievements in life sciences, physics, and mathematics, with each laureate receiving a $3 million award—more than twice the amount of a Nobel Prize.

The winners are selected by panels of previous Breakthrough Prize recipients, ensuring peer-driven recognition. The annual ceremony brings together not only the best minds in science but also celebrities, filmmakers, and tech industry leaders, creating an uncommon crossover between pop culture and research, in an effort to bring more public attention as well as funding to scientific achievement.

Dr. Liu was honored for inventing base editing and prime editing, technologies that allow precise, programmable rewriting of DNA to correct mutations linked to genetic disease—without introducing double-stranded breaks. These tools have rapidly transitioned from the bench to the clinic, with at least 15 clinical trials currently underway worldwide targeting diseases like sickle cell anemia, T-cell leukemia, and others.

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