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Designing Science: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Our Recent Journal Cover Art

Posted on by Jordan Nutting
A 3D illustration showing RAF inhibitor LXH254 engages BRAF or CRAF protomers (orange), but spares ARAF (red). Unoccupied ARAF is competent to trigger downstream mitogenic signaling, which is demonstrated with lightning bolts. Red cells in the background are fluorescently labeled RAS proteins, expressed in live cells. The Cell Chemical Biology cover type superimposes the image.
Image adapted from original artwork by iSO-FORM LLC.

We made the cover! Of Cell Chemical Biology, that is.

This July, Cell Chemical Biology editors accepted a study from Promega scientists and invited the research team to submit cover art for the issue. The study in question details a BRET-based method to quantify drug-target occupancy within RAF-KRAS complexes in live cells. Promega scientists Matt Robers and Jim Vasta collaborated with one of our talented designers, Michael Stormberg, to craft an image that accurately represents the science in a dynamic and engaging way.

You can check out the paper and cover art in the November 16 issue of Cell Chemical Biology.

I spoke with Michael Stormberg to learn more about the creative process that went into creating this cover art and how he worked with the research team and other collaborators.

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Reviewing the Importance of circRNA

Posted on by Kerstin Hurd

In recent years following the COVID-19 pandemic, RNA has gained attention for its successes and potential use in vaccines and therapeutics. One avenue of interest in RNA research is a non-coding class of RNA first identified almost 50 years ago, circular RNA (circRNA).

In 1976, Sanger et al. first identified circRNA in plant viroids, and later additions to the field found them in mice, humans, nematodes, and other groups. Unlike linear RNA, circRNA are covalently closed loops that don’t have a 5′ cap or 3′ polyadenylated tail. Following its discovery, researchers thought circRNA was the product of a rare splicing event caused by an error in mRNA formation leading to low interest in researching the subject (1).

In the early 2010s, following the development of high throughput RNA sequencing technology, Salzman et al. determined that circRNAs were not a result of misplicing, but a stable, conserved, and widely sourced form of RNA with biological importance. Since noncoding RNA makes up the majority of the transcriptome it’s an incredibly important field of study. We now recognize circRNAs for their potential as disease biomarkers and importance in researching human disease (2).

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Insects and Science: Optimizing Work with Sf9 Insect Cells

Posted on by Shannon Sindermann

Insects are a keystone species in the animal kingdom, often providing invaluable benefits to terrestrial ecosystems and useful services to mankind. While many of them are seen as pests (think mosquitos), others are important for pollination, waste management, and even scientific research.

Insect biotechnology, or the use of insect-derived molecules and cells to develop products, is applied in a diverse set of scientific fields including agricultural, industrial, and medical biotechnology. Insect cells have been central to many scientific advances, being utilized in recombinant protein, baculovirus, and vaccine and viral pesticide production, among other applications (5).

Therefore, as the use of insect cells becomes more widespread, understanding how they are produced, their research applications, and the scientific products that can be used with them is crucial to fostering further scientific advancements.

Primary Cell Cultures and Cell Lines

Cell culture - Cell lines - Insect Cells

In general, experimentation with individual cells, rather than full animal models, is advantageous due to improved reproducibility, decreased space requirements, less ethical concerns, and a reduction in expense. This makes primary cell cultures and cell lines essential contributors to basic scientific research.

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Have No Fear, qPCR Is Here: How qPCR can help identify food contamination

Posted on by Shannon Sindermann

Foodborne disease affects almost 1 in 10 people around the world annually, and continuously presents a serious public health issue (9).

Food Contamination-Strawberries-Blueberries-Magnifying glass
Food Contamination is common and can be seen in a variety of forms and food products.

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 major strain on health-care systems; as these diseases induce a variety of different illnesses characterized by a multitude of symptoms including gastrointestinal, neurological, gynecological, and immunological (9,2).

But why is food contamination increasing?

New challenges, in addition to established food contamination hazards, only serve to compound and increase food contamination risks. Food is vulnerable to contamination at any point between farm and table—during production, processing, delivery, or preparation. Here are a few possible causes of contamination at each point in the chain (2):

  • Production: Infected animal biproducts, acquired toxins from predation and consumption of other sick animals, or pollutants of water, soil, and/or air.
  • Processing: Contaminated water for cleaning or ice. Germs on animals or on the production line.
  • Delivery: Bacterial growth due to uncontrolled temperatures or unclean mode of transport.
  • Preparation: Raw food contamination, cross-contamination, unclean work environments, or sick people near food.

Further emerging challenges include, more complex food movement, a consequence of changes in production and supply of imported food and international trade. This generates more contamination opportunities and transports infected products to other countries and consumers. Conjointly, changes in consumer preferences, and emerging bacteria, toxins, and antimicrobial resistance evolve, and are constantly changing the game for food contamination (1,9).

Hence, versatile tests that can identify foodborne illnesses in a rapid, versatile, and reliable way, are top priority.

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It Is Not Just You—Burnout Is Real

Posted on by Kelly Grooms

“I just feel burned out.” I heard those words recently from my college junior. For him, the spring semester is barreling to a close and he is feeling tired, unmotivated and unproductive. He isn’t alone; most of us have said (or thought) those words at some point in our lives. We use the words when we are feeling tired, stressed or overwhelmed at work (or school), but burnout is more than just an emotional response to workload or other job-related challenges. Burnout can quickly cascade into more physical symptoms and take a toll on both our personal and professional lives.

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The Power of Pet Ownership

Posted on by Riley Bell

International Pet Day, observed each year on April 11th, provides the purrfect opportunity to reciprocate all the labored love and affection our pets so freely give us. There’s no doubt that our furry, feathered, and scaley friends greatly improve our quality of life. But did you know there are benefits to this human-animal bond beyond their incredible cuteness? Read about some of the paw-some science-approved benefits that can come with pet ownership.

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PARP and DDR Pathways: Targeting the DNA Damage Response for Cancer Treatment

Posted on by Ken Doyle

Our cells, and the DNA they contain, are under constant attack from external factors such as ionizing radiation, ultraviolet light and environmental toxins. Internal cellular processes can also generate metabolites, such as reactive oxygen species, that damage DNA. In most cases, DNA damage results in permanent changes to DNA molecules, including DNA mismatches, single-strand breaks (SSBs), double-strand breaks (DSBs), crosslinking, or chemical alteration of bases or sugars. If left unchecked, DNA damage can cause genome instability, mutations and aberrant transcription, and oncogenic transformation.

PARP DDR pathway for drug discovery

Fortunately, our cells have also evolved multiple pathways to repair damaged DNA, collectively known as the DNA damage response (DDR). The type of repair mechanism depends on the nature of the damage, and whether the damage occurs in mitochondrial or nuclear DNA. These mechanisms have been reviewed extensively (1,2). Recently, considerable attention has focused on pathways for repairing SSBs and DSBs, mediated by the ADP-ribosylating enzyme known as poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase 1, or PARP-1.

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Confronting an Emerging Pathogen: Candida auris

Posted on by AnnaKay Kruger
Candida auris illustration
Candida auris is a fungal infection sweeping through healthcare sites across the U.S.

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 a fungal pathogen that has been taking root in hospitals across the U.S. which gives some cause for concern: Candida auris.

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It’s Time to Automate Your Plasmid Purification

Posted on by Jordan Nutting

In the fifty years since the first reported transformation of recombinant plasmids into bacteria (1), plasmid cloning has become one of the pillars of synthetic biology research and manufacturing biopharmaceuticals.

But purifying plasmids is no small feat. It can often take hours of hands-on time to go from culture to eluate with low-throughput and time-sensitive manual methods. Automating plasmid purification is the way to go, whether you’re isolating a single plasmid from a large volume culture or creating a library of thousands of different constructs.

Working in a biosafety cabinet filled with flasks and culture plates containing yellow bacterial cultures, a researcher harvests a culture.
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How We Connected in 2022

Posted on by Jordan Villanueva
The Finance and Accounting team attends a Milwaukee Brewers game for team bonding

As the calendars turn to a new year, we love to take a moment to look back at the previous year. A lot happened at Promega in 2022! We launched Spectrum CE System, the first capillary electrophoresis instrument compatible with 8-color STR analysis chemistry. We announced that over 20% of our global electricity usage is now generated by renewable sources. We unveiled new employee benefits that aim to support employees dealing with specific life challenges.

Perhaps most importantly, in 2022 we prioritized meaningful connections and deepening our relationships with one another. From honoring employee contributions to marking significant milestones, here are just a few ways Promega teams around the world celebrated and connected in the past year.

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