In areas of the world where the electricity is intermittent, resources are limited and transporting bulky equipment and reagents that are sensitive to temperature fluctuations is difficult, diagnosis of viruses like dengue can be challenging. If you could reduce or eliminate the need for electricity dependent equipment for diagnostic assays without sacrificing sensitivity or specificity, […]
Based on the Illuminations article by Dr. Terry Riss, from our Cellular Analysis group. Choosing the most appropriate cell health assay for your experiment can be difficult. There are several factors to consider when choosing an assay: the question you are asking, the nature of your sample, the number of samples being tested, the required […]
You often need several pieces of information to really understand what is happening within a cell or population of cells. If your cells are not proliferating, are they dying? Or, are you seeing cytostasis? If they are dying, what is the mechanism? Is it apoptosis or necrosis? If you are seeing apoptosis, what is the […]
No protein is an island. Within a cell, protein-protein interactions (PPIs) are involved in highly regulated and specific pathways that control gene expression and cell signaling. The disruption of PPIs can lead to a variety of disease states, including cancer. Two general approaches are commonly used to study PPIs. Real-time assays measure PPI activity in […]
Scenario 1: Jake needs a flask of MCF-7 cells for an assay, so he sends an email to the graduate student listserv asking for cells. Melissa replies that she has an extra flask of cells that she could share. Jake happily accepts the cells and begins his experiment. Scenario 2: Michael passaged his cells yesterday […]
Real-time, up-to-the-minute access to information provides new opportunities for scientists to monitor cellular events in ever more meaningful ways. Real-time cytotoxicity and cell viability assay reagents now allow constant monitoring of cell health status without the need to lyse or remove aliquots from plates for measurement. With a real-time approach, data can be collected from […]
In the Spring of 2015, greenhouse tomato plants grown in Jordan presented with a mosaic pattern of light and dark green patches on leaves, narrowing leaves, and yellow- and brown-spotted fruit (Salem et al. 2015). The pathogen was identified as a novel plant virus, the tomato brown rugose fruit virus (ToBRFV), and the original outbreak […]
“We are a company that is built upon innovation, and R&D is one of the main drivers of that,” says Frank Fan, Director of Biology at Promega. Promega Research and Development is focused on developing reliable tools that address the biggest problems facing life scientists. However, our R&D scientists do much more than just develop […]
Foodborne disease affects almost 1 in 10 people around the world annually, and continuously presents a serious public health issue (9). More than 200 diseases have evolved from consuming food contaminated by bacteria, viruses, parasites, and chemical substances, resulting in extensive increases in global disease and mortality rates (9). With this, foodborne pathogens cause a […]
HBO’s The Last of Us has successfully brought fungal pathogens to the forefront of the pandemic discourse, raising questions as to whether a fungus could really pose a significant threat to humans. While scientists agree that the fungus featured in the show, cordyceps, won’t be making the required inter-species jump any time soon, there is […]
