How do Scientists Connect Extreme Weather Events to Climate Change?

Posted on by Jordan Nutting

This year ushered in a series of intense weather events that impacted communities across the globe: record-breaking heat waves; super-charged cyclones; intense flooding; coastal waters hitting a balmy 38°C (1–4). Attributing extreme weather to climate change has become the norm when reporting on these seemingly more frequent and intense events. But beyond simply acknowledging weather to be more violent or destructive than it was in the past, how is it that climate experts are able to determine if increasing greenhouse gas levels are the culprit behind these extreme weather events? The answers can be found in climate attribution science.

Waves are whipped up on a flooded street while palm trees are bending under the force of the wind during hurricane Irma.
Attribution studies have shown that climate change increased the amount of rainfall during Hurricane Irma, a particularly intense 2017 hurricane (5).
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To Tweet or Not to Tweet: Microblogging for Science Communication

Posted on by Kerstin Hurd

Microblogging is a form of blogging characterized by a shortened format and frequent posting schedule. Instead of personal websites, microblogs reside on social media platforms or apps, making them accessible to interact with and post on smartphones. Microblogs focus on interacting with audiences directly. With the ability to reply to or repost content, microblogging is more conversational and collaborative with audiences than long- form writing.  

Laptop with a newspaper inside of it. next to emoji people connected across the globe.

After its founding in 2006, Twitter (recently renamed “X” by its new owner) quickly became the face of microblogging platforms. Users publish content to the platform in posts of 280 characters that can include images, gifs, videos, and what the platform is most known for: hashtags. Hashtags enable users to search the platform by topic to connect with or follow other users who are writing about those topics. Users can also interact with each other by liking or retweeting tweets, which posts them to their own account. The open forum discussion style makes it possible for individuals to share their stories, offering first-hand accounts of breaking news and fueling political movements such as the Women’s March and Black Lives Matter. 

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Cancer Preventing Vaccines: Unleashing the Potential of Tumor Antigens

Posted on by Sara Christenson

It has been more than 100 years since Dr. William B. Coley, known today as the “Father of Immunotherapy,” made the first recorded attempt to mobilize the immune system as a means of treating cancer (9). Decades later, the discovery of T cells and the vital role they play in the immune system set the groundwork for many new immunotherapy treatments, such as those involving monoclonal antibodies, cytokines, CAR T cells, and checkpoint inhibitors.

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Octopuses Use RNA Editing to Transiently Change Their Proteins When They Get Cold

Posted on by Kelly Grooms
Octopuses in the ocean

In the murky depths of the ocean live some of the smartest and most unusual creatures to inhabit the earth. Octopuses are known for their sucker covered tentacles and chameleon-like abilities to change color, pattern and shape to blend it with their environment. The changes aren’t limited to just their appearance. A new study published in Cell reveals that they can change their brains as well (1). The study found that octopuses recode their brain in response to environmental temperature changes using RNA editing.

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From D.O.O.R.S. Scholar to Promega Scientist

Posted on by Jordan Villanueva
Jazmin Santiesteban is a Formulations Scientist at Promega and a former D.O.O.R.S. Scholar

What do you wear to a job interview at a biotechnology company? How should your resume be formatted? What questions do you ask to ensure the role is a good fit?

“My mentor guided me through job applications, including helping me identify the things that were important to me in a job,” says Jazmin Santiesteban. “While we were talking about those things, she asked if I would be interested in applying to Promega.”

Jazmin received the D.O.O.R.S. Scholarship in 2021, before her senior year at Lawrence University. That scholarship program helped Jazmin develop new skills and cultivate connections that eventually led her to a job at Promega after graduation.

“I love it so far,” she says. “I don’t know where my career may take me, but right now I want to build a longer future at Promega.”

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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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How Does Ozempic Work? The Mechanism of Action of Semaglutide and Other GLP-1 Receptor Agonists

Posted on by Jordan Nutting

In early 2023, a type 2 diabetes medication, semaglutide (brand names Ozempic, Rybelsus), drew huge amounts of attention on social media and in popular culture. The reason? People were getting off-label (that is, not for treating type 2 diabetes) prescriptions of Ozempic to take advantage of one of its common side effects—measurable weight loss.

How does semaglutide and other drugs of its type manage diabetes on a molecular level, and what drives the weight loss effects?

Female leg stepping onto a weigh scale
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Synthetic Biology: Minimal Cell, Maximal Opportunity

Posted on by Ken Doyle

According to the National Human Genome Research Institute, synthetic biology is “a field of science that involves redesigning organisms for useful purposes by engineering them to have new abilities”. Synthetic biology has a broad range of applications, from manufacturing pharmaceuticals and other biologically active chemicals and biofuels, to accelerating the adoption of plant-based burgers (1).

At the heart of the synthetic biology revolution is the rapid technological advancement—and accompanying drop in costs—of DNA oligonucleotide synthesis. Typically, synthetic biology researchers use oligonucleotides as building blocks to assemble genes of interest that are then introduced into, and expressed by, a different organism. For example, to create the plant-based Impossible Burger, the soy leghemoglobin gene (normally found in the root nodules of leguminous plants) was synthesized and expressed in yeast cells (1). This component gives the burger its meaty flavor and appearance of “bleeding” when cooked.

An Impossible Burger served with fries on the side

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Exploring Instrumentation for Your Lab: Particle Movers vs. Liquid Handlers

Posted on by Kelly Grooms
There is no ‘One Size Fits All’ solution to lab automation, and finding the right solution for your lab can have a lasting impact on your labs efficiency and data quality.

Some laboratory processes are time-consuming and tedious. Automation highly manual processes such as nucleic acid extraction can increase your lab’s throughput and improve the overall consistency of your results. Unfortunately choosing and implementing one of these systems can seem overwhelming. As you begin to evaluate the automation needs of your lab, one of the first decision points is the type of platform you need. Do you need a liquid handler or a magnetic particle mover?

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Celebrating Distinguished Scientists and Peer-Reviewed Publications in Promega R&D

Posted on by Jordan Villanueva
Promega R&D Scientists were recently honored for publishing papers and patents between 2019-2023

“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 products. Promega scientists regularly pursue basic research to curate new skills and knowledge and collaborate extensively with researchers across academia and industry. This work fuels major advancements in areas like targeted genome editing, drug discovery, and genetic identity.

In June 2023, our Research and Development department gathered to recognize Promega scientists who have published peer-reviewed papers or patents. This was the first time the department had held this event since 2019, and in that time 71 scientists have published research in journals like Nature and Cell. 16 of those scientists published 10 or more times, and several were also invited to contribute review articles and book chapters.

In addition, Promega also recognized seven researchers with the title “Distinguished Scientist.” This award was intended to recognize scientists who are at the top of their game in both advancing and communicating science. Their work includes protein engineering, chemical biology, neuroscience and much more.

The Distinguished Scientists were selected for having an i10 index above 25 since 2018. This indicates that the scientist has more than 25 publications that have been cited 10+ times in the past five years, as measured by Google Scholar. As VP of R&D Poncho Meisenheimer said, “This award is truly from the scientific community. This is a recognition that your scientific peers see your work as valuable.”

Here is the list of Promega researchers recognized as Distinguished Scientists and some of their recent high-impact papers.

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