Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the deadliest infectious diseases globally, with millions of new cases and over a million deaths each year. The rise of drug-resistant strains has only complicated treatment and control efforts, turning TB into a moving target for clinicians and public health officials alike. Understanding how TB spreads, evolves and becomes resistant requires more than just microscopes and cultures—it demands a detailed look at the bacterium’s genetic code.
On March 12, 2025, a 46,000-pound stainless-steel chamber made a five-hour journey through Feynman Center to its final resting place in the brand-new Fill-Lyophilize-Finish suite. This massive piece of equipment will more than double the lyophilization capacity at Promega Madison, safeguarding the continuity of production and opening new frontiers in product formulation.
Lyophilization provides scientists with increased stability, enhanced flexibility and protection against error. Promega has been lyophilizing reagents in-house since the mid-1990s, and demand has steadily grown over time. The recent expansion reflects the company’s commitment to anticipating scientists’ future needs and planning for the long term.
Lyophilization, also known as freeze-drying, provides a variety of benefits in the lab. For example, lyophilized reagents can typically be stored at higher temperatures, and they offer longer stability.
“Lyophilized product also gives you added flexibility in how you tailor your reagents to your specific need,” says Stuart Forsyth, Sr Process Validation Engineer at Promega. “Whether you’re reconstituting with a buffer, water or even a sample, you’re able to alter the assay’s concentration and formulation in ways that are impossible with liquid formulations.”
Many of the most popular Promega products include lyophilized components, including the CellTiter-Glo® Luminescent Cell Viability Assay and ONE-Glo™ Luciferase Assay System.
Promega also offers lyophilization for customers working with Promega to manufacture custom products. The flexibility helps many labs, especially diagnostics, ensure that the final reagent maximizes efficiency and ease of use for point-of-care applications.
“Especially if you’re lyophilizing the whole assay in one, you’re removing a lot of potential for mistakes by the user that would result in product failure,” says Terri McDonnell, Director of Global Custom & OEM Commercial Development. “Lyophilization capabilities are powerful tools to have in your toolbox as you try to formulate a reagent for minimal risk of misuse or mistakes.”
Promega Operations closely monitors the throughput capacity of all critical processes. For years, the team has projected that manufacturing would outgrow the existing lyophilization capacity sometime in the mid-2020s. The project to build out the empty suite in Feynman Manufacturing Center began in 2021, and it will start producing products for sale in early 2026.
The new lyophilizer nearly doubles the throughput capacity of Promega Madison. It will primarily be used with 10ml vials and 100ml bottles, but the line can also handle 2ml and 3ml vials and large LyoGuard trays for bulk powder production. At this point, the team plans to primarily use the Feynman suite for high-demand catalog products like CellTiter-Glo, creating flexibility to use the older lines for custom products and other smaller demands.
The new lyophilization suite will have several significant impacts for scientists using Promega reagents.
First, the new lyophilization line creates additional redundancy to ensure that key products are continuously available. The huge increase in capacity means that if one lyophilizer is down for maintenance, the others can handle picking up the slack. The new suite also features the current state-of-the-art automation technology, minimizing any risks for contamination or human error that would disrupt high-quality production.
For customers working with Promega on custom orders, the new lyophilizer gives Promega more flexibility to collaborate with customers on finding the right formulation for their needs, all within the established quality system.
“We partner with a wide range of customers seeking to adapt or customize our technologies for specific applications,” says Terri McDonnell. “As the primary manufacturer of most of our products, and with the addition of new lyophilization capabilities, we can offer expanded scale and format options. Because these activities are performed in-house, we maintain greater control over quality and supply chain logistics, helping to ensure the consistent and reliable delivery of products.”
Finally, the additional capacity means that high-volume products can be manufactured less frequently by scaling up batch sizes. This frees up human resources to explore process improvements and dedicate more time to work outside of the production workflow. Kris Pearson, Director of Manufacturing Sciences and Custom operations, says the smaller equipment can serve as a sandbox where teams can test creative ideas.
“We’ll have more opportunity to work with R&D on new product development, and to dive deep into new cycles and what that can mean for our custom capabilities,” she says. “We can play around with new formats and processes to find new ways of offering a great product for every custom customer.”
As a private company, Promega isn’t beholden to short-term gains. Leadership prioritizes decisions that support future needs, while building in room to adapt to changes in the scientific landscape.
“When we started designing Feynman Manufacturing Center, we said we wanted 30% of the square footage to be frontier space,” says Jen Romanin VP of Global Support and IVD Operations, and key member of the Global Planning Team. “This space would give us future flexibility in where new features would be installed.”
Sometimes needs are forecasted far in advance – for example, the architectural drawings of Feynman Manufacturing Center dated February 2012 show the new suite was already earmarked for Lyophilization almost a decade before the construction project began. Other spaces are left intentionally unlabeled as a nod to the unknown needs that will emerge over time. Whatever arises, the flexibility and foresight built into Promega facilities will position the team to respond quickly – and build a high-quality solution – without having to break new ground.
“I think this says two things about us,” says Chuck York, Vice President of Operations at Promega. “First, it says we’re pretty confident we’re going to be here for a long time. Secondly, it says that no matter what happens between now and then, we want to make sure we’re prepared.”
In recent years, non-coding RNAs—especially microRNAs (miRNAs) and long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs)—have emerged as powerful regulators of cellular behavior. These molecules modulate gene expression, often by targeting mRNAs for translational suppression or degradation. Two recent studies—one focused on osteoarthritis and the other on 5-Fu-resistant colorectal cancer—illustrate how these non-coding, regulatory RNAs operate within disease-relevant signaling networks, providing new points for therapeutic intervention.
Both studies use the pmirGLO Dual-Luciferase miRNA Target Expression Vector to evaluation predicted miRNA activity. This dual-luciferase system offers a clean and quantifiable way to validate miRNA–mRNA interactions using a simple bioluminescent readout. By cloning the 3´ untranslated regions (UTRs) of suspected targets downstream of a firefly luciferase reporter and normalizing against Renilla luciferase, researchers can rapidly confirm whether a miRNA directly regulates its target.
Continue reading “Using Dual-Luciferase Assays to Identify the Role of Non-Coding RNAs in Disease”
Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) are an increasingly powerful class of cancer therapeutics that combine the targeted precision of monoclonal antibodies with the cytotoxic potency of small-molecule drugs. By directing chemotherapy agents specifically to tumor cells, ADCs aim to maximize antitumor activity while minimizing damage to healthy tissues. One key challenge in ADC design is selecting the right target and payload—features that define efficacy, safety and resistance.
Continue reading “What Makes OBI-992 Different? A Closer Look at This TROP2 Antibody Drug Conjugate”
The brain is constantly rewiring itself, fine-tuning connections that shape how we think, learn, and remember. But capturing those fleeting molecular changes as they happen — at the level of individual synapses and across entire brain regions — has long been a challenge in neuroscience. Now, thanks to recent advances in HaloTag® dye technology, researchers can visualize protein dynamics in living brains with stunning clarity and specificity.
Continue reading “Mapping the Mind: In Vivo Imaging of Synaptic Plasticity with HaloTag® Ligands”From enzyme activity to gene expression, light-based assays have become foundational tools in life science research. Among these, fluorescence and bioluminescence are two of the most widely-used approaches for detecting and quantifying biological events. Both rely on the emission of light, but the mechanisms generating that light—and the practical implications for experimental design—are quite different.
Choosing between a fluorescence or bioluminescence assay isn’t as simple as picking between two reagents off the shelf. Each has strengths and limitations depending on the application, instrumentation, and biological system. In this blog, we’ll walk through how each method works, where they shine (and where they don’t), and what to consider when deciding which approach is right for your experiment.
Continue reading “Bioluminescence vs. Fluorescence: Choosing the Right Assay for Your Experiment “Today’s blog is written by guest blogger, Kai Hillman, Associate Product Marketing Manager at Promega.
RNA therapeutics have revolutionized modern medicine, offering groundbreaking solutions for diseases that were once deemed untreatable. These innovative treatments harness the power of RNA molecules to correct genetic anomalies and modulate protein expression, paving the way for personalized medicine. Among the many facets of RNA biology, double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) plays a pivotal role in cellular processes and immune surveillance.
Continue reading “Immune Surveillance Meets Innovation: The Critical Need for dsRNA Detection”Today’s blog is written by guest blogger, Alden Little, Marketing Intern at Promega.
From genetics to gut microbes, scientists are finding new ways to make white fat act like calorie-burning brown fat. Here’s how three research teams are working to find the next breakthrough obesity treatment.
Obesity affects millions worldwide and remains a complex challenge shaped by diet, environment, genetics, and socio-economic factors. While medications like semaglutide have shown promise in supporting weight loss, there’s growing interest in alternative strategies.
One area gaining traction is adipose tissue biology. Adipose tissue—commonly known as body fat— is not just a passive storage site for excess energy, but an active player in regulating metabolism and energy balance. Adipose tissue comes in several forms:
Most of the fat in our bodies is called white adipose tissue (WAT). It stores energy for later use—but too much of it increases the risk for obesity, diabetes, and other health problems. In contrast, brown adipose tissue (BAT) burns energy to generate heat through a process called thermogenesis, helping regulate body weight and temperature. Scientists have discovered a third kind, called beige adipose tissue, which behaves like BAT but can form within WAT under certain conditions like cold exposure or specific molecular triggers.
Continue reading “Beyond Ozempic: The New Frontier of Obesity Research”
In 2000 measles was officially declared eliminated in the United States (1), meaning there had been no disease transmission for over 12 months. Unfortunately, recent years have shown us it was not gone for good. So far in 2025 there have been 6 outbreaks and 607 cases. Five hundred and sixty-seven of these cases (93%) are associated with an outbreak; seventy-four (12%) cases have resulted in hospitalization, and there has been one confirmed death, with another death under investigation (as of April 3, 2025; 2). For comparison, there were two hundred and eighty-five total cases in 2024; one hundred and ninety-eight (69%) were associated with outbreaks; one hundred and fourteen (40%) cases resulted in hospitalization. There were no deaths (2).
Before the development of a vaccine in the 1960s, measles was practically a childhood rite of passage. This common childhood disease is not without teeth however. One out of every 20 children with measles develops pneumonia, 1 out of every 1,000 develops encephalitis (swelling of the brain), and 1 to 3 of every 1,000 dies from respiratory and neurological complications (3). In the years before a vaccine was available, it is estimated that there were between 3.5 and 5 million measles cases per year. (4). The first measles vaccine was licensed in the U.S. by John Enders in 1963, and not surprisingly, after the measles vaccine became widely used, the number of cases of measles plummeted. By 1970, there were under 1,000 cases (2).
Surprisingly, with the disappearance of this childhood disease the number of childhood deaths from all infectious diseases dropped dramatically. As vaccination programs were instituted in England and parts of Europe, the same phenomenon was observed. Reduction or elimination of measles-related illness and death alone can’t explain the size of the decrease in childhood mortality. Although measles infection is associated with suppression of the immune system that will make the host vulnerable to other infections, these side effects were assumed to be short lived. In reality, the drop in mortality from infectious diseases following vaccination for measles lasted for years, not months (5).
Continue reading “Measles and Immunosuppression—When Getting Well Means You Can Still Get Sick”
Three-dimensional (3D) cell culture systems have become essential tools in cancer research, drug screening and tissue engineering—offering a more physiologically relevant alternative to traditional 2D cultures, which often fail to replicate key in vivo microenvironment features. But as the field has evolved, variability in experimental outcomes has become a key challenge, limiting their reproducibility and translation into clinical settings. While spheroids offer layered architecture, nutrient gradients and multicellular interactions, inconsistent culture methods have made it difficult to draw reliable conclusions across labs.
Continue reading “What 32,000 3D Spheroids Revealed About Culture Conditions”