Life Science Tools of the Trade

Has the High School musical craze reached the science world? If you haven’t seen Bio-Rads PCR song, you need to check it out!

Scientists for better PCR

I’m still undecided. Is this suppose to be taken seriously?

I received a flyer for Clontech’s In-Fusion PCR Cloning System in the mail. I do try and scan the junk mail I receive, looking for the jewel in the junk. In-Fusion is a method of cloning that uses regions of engineered homology on your PCR generated insert and vector of choice to ligate without cutting your PCR fragment. Interesting. Maybe. Looking at the “time saved” flow chart. 30 minute ligation insead of 16 hours! That saves an entire day….if you still ligate overnight. In fairness, a footnote (in small print) reads “newer 5 min T4 DNA ligase reactions could be used”.   The real laugher is provided by the jokers in advertising when they comapare In-Fusion’s cloning efficiency with T4 DNA ligase’s. In-Fusion, obviously, is rated “High” (surprise) for both  .1 to 4 kb and 4 kb to 10 kb inserts. T4 DNA ligase PCR Cloning? No data available! Really? No data available? In-Fusion is better, much better when we compare it to “No data available”.

Clontech looks like a contender for the BioTech Bullshitter award for 2008!