Research-Based Training for Sustainable Use and Management of Marine Ecosystems in Namibia

Posted on by Kari Kenefick

In my science blog research/writing, news reports are usually pulled from US sources. But interesting scientific research is obviously being conducted in many places around the globe. When this story from Namibia came along, there was so much I didn’t know. It was time to catch up.

relief map of Namibia
Relief map of Namibia. Image by Natural Earth and Kbh3rd with permission under Wikimedia commons.

Namibia is Exactly Where in Africa?

Namibia is one of the world’s youngest countries, having gained independence from South Africa in 1990. Situated northwest of the country of South Africa on the Atlantic Ocean, Namibia is arid, composed largely of desert.

This blog is about research conducted at the Sam Nujoma Research Center, University of Namibia, on Henties Bay. Henties Bay (not shown on this map) is in the region of Erongo, located in the center of Namibia along the coast. Henties Bay has become a tourist destination in part due to the abundance of fish and marine life found there.

Sam Nujoma Research center.
The Sam Nujoma Research Center of University of Namibia, located near Henties Bay.

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Studying Autophagy in Flies Using CRISPR

Posted on by Leah Cronan

Transcribed RNA can be used to study RNA structure and how it relates to function or how proteins and RNA interact. It can also be used for gene silencing using RNAi (studied more often as a possible therapeutic option) or simply serve as a molecular standard in Real-time RT-PCR. Transcribed RNA is also used in Class 2 Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeat systems, or CRISPR.

The CRISPR system, which is naturally occurring in bacteria, has been manipulated to perform gene editing in a laboratory environment. To perform CRISPR in the laboratory environment, you need two main reagents:

  1. The Brains: Guide RNA (gRNA or sgRNA) – Small piece of RNA containing a nucleotide sequence that is capable of binding the chosen Cas Protein, and contains a portion of the sequence that can bind the DNA the researcher intends to modify – the target DNA.
  2. The Brawn: CRISPR-associated endonuclease (Cas Protein) – The protein that cleaves the target DNA; the most popular Cas protein is called Cas9. The Cas protein is guided by the (gRNA).

Guo et al. used Promega’s RiboMAX™ Large-Scale RNA Production System to produce gRNA to be used in CRISPR for their study to determine the effects of the loss of, or mutations in, a specific gene in fruit flies (1).  Atg101 is a gene that plays an important role in autophagy, an intracellular pathway for removing toxins or damaged parts of cells.

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Celebrating Bike-to-Work Week 2019

Posted on by Promega

Every day at the Promega Headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin, many Promega employees trade the crowded Beltline Highway for a scenic route along the bike trails. As our colleagues wind around the lakes and prairies of south-central Wisconsin, they’re reducing greenhouse gas emissions and getting some fun exercise in the process. This week, during National Bike-to-Work week, we’re taking time to recognize our colleagues who opt for a healthier and more sustainable commute. In the video below, hear about how Promega supports our bike commuters from Sam Jackson, an avid biker and Multimedia Specialist at Promega.

Eight Considerations for Getting the Best Data from Your Luminescent Assays

Posted on by Julia Nepper

The stage is set. You’ve spent days setting up this experiment. Your bench is spotless. All the materials you need to finally collect data are laid neatly before you. You fetch your cells from the incubator, add your detection reagents, and carefully slide the assay plate into the luminometer. It whirs and buzzes, and data begin to appear on the computer screen. But wait!

Bad data
These data are garbage!

Don’t let this dramatic person be you. Here are 8 tips from us on things to watch out for before you start your next luminescent assay. Make sure you’ll be getting good data before wasting precious sample!

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Converting RPM to g Force (RCF) and Vice Versa

Posted on by Promega
Rotational Radius
Rotational radius of centrifuge for converting RPM to g force (RCF).

g Force or Relative Centrifugal Force (RCF) is the amount of acceleration to be applied to the sample. It depends on the revolutions per minute (RPM) and radius of the rotor, and is relative to the force of Earth’s gravity.

A good, precise protocol for centrifugation instructs you to use the g force rather than RPMs because the rotor size might differ, and g force will be different while the revolutions per minute stay the same. Unfortunately, many protocols are written in hurry and instructions are given in RPMs. Therefore, you have to convert g force (RCF) into revolutions per minute (rpms) and vice versa.

Modern centrifuges have an automatic converter but older ones do not. There is a simple formula to calculate this, but it takes some time to do the calculation. Meanwhile, your cells might die or the biochemical reaction goes on for three times longer than it should.

There are several ways to make conversion:

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Useful or Useless: Weird Things Packed in Our Evolutionary Suitcase

Posted on by Natalie Larsen

Genetics are a curious thing. Don’t get me wrong, on paper and in theory, the study and science behind our inheritance completely checks out. However, in practice, it can still be a bit disconcerting to look in the mirror one day and recognize your father’s nose and eyebrows in your own face, or to realize you gesticulate in the same animated fashion as your mother, and sometimes hear her laugh come bubbling out of your own mouth.

More curious still are the structures and behaviors that have been carried throughout evolution to the modern era of humanity, though we are considerably distinguishable from our more primitive ancestors.

And perhaps most curious of all, are the structures we continue to pack along with us, as that have little to no known useful function in the contemporary human body. These features are better known as vestigial structures, and are classically defined as features and behaviors that no longer serve the function and purpose they were designed to perform (in comparison to other creatures with the same parts).

Currently, as I recover from the aftermath of a painful encounter with one of my own vestigial organs, I find myself considering if my late appendix ever did anything much for me, or if it’s only purpose was to lie in wait as a metaphorical ticking time-bomb. Prior to my surprise appendectomy, I hadn’t spared much thought for my appendix, and decided I wanted to honor it’s memory by learning more about it, in addition to several of our other human evolutionary leftovers. Man, I wish I would’ve asked the doctors to hang on to that bad boy for me!

The Evolutionary Junk in Our Trunk

Appendix

The appendix is perhaps the most widely known vestigial organ in the human body of today. If you’ve never seen one, the appendix is a small, pouch-like tube of tissue that juts off the large intestine where the small and large intestines connect. By comparison, in herbivorous vertebrates the appendix is much larger, and functions primarily to aid in the breakdown of cellulose in consumed plants. Today, the appendix is considered a small leftover from one of our plant-eating ancestors. As our diets have changed over time, the role our appendix plays in digestion has declined, leaving plenty of room for speculation regarding what purpose it serves now.

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Celebrate World Migratory Bird Day by Reducing Your Plastic Use

Posted on by Michele Arduengo

One of the most noticeable phenological events of Spring in the Midwest United States is the arrival of the red winged black birds in March. These birds fly in from the South and take up residence on fence posts, power lines and tall reeds, creating a a weaving of red and yellow and black against a still brown backdrop. Shortly after the blackbirds arrive, the first robins of spring greet us and sandhill cranes fly in along with many other species.


These migratory birds that serve as heralds of spring are celebrated on World Migratory Bird Day (#WMBD #WMBD2019 #BirdDay). This day is celebrated twice a year, on the second Saturday in May and the second Saturday in October.

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Promega Scientific Applications: Expertise to Optimize Your Workflow

Posted on by Melanie Preston
Molecular biology protocols are being applied by the cannabis industry to ensure safety and improve production.

How many times have you encountered a technical problem in your work that you needed to solve? Maybe it was an issue of workflow efficiency—too many samples, but too little time for hands-on work. Or maybe there wasn’t a technology available for what you needed to accomplish, and you didn’t have time to develop something yourself. Or still, maybe you were starting into a new research area and didn’t yet have the expertise to solve the problem. Wouldn’t it be nice if you had some support to figure out a solution for these challenges? We have scientists at your service! You may already know about our top-notch team of Technical Services Scientists. They can assist you via phone, email, or chat to walk you through any technical issue, regardless of whether or not you’re using Promega products (not too many companies can say that!).

We go beyond that level of assistance with the expertise of the Scientific Applications team.

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There’s Something About Trees: Arbor Day 2019

Posted on by Michele Arduengo
two girls climbing a tree
Climbing The Old Willow Tree is best with a friend

My daughter has a favorite tree, The Old Willow Tree, at Aldo Leopold Nature Center in Madison. I don’t know exactly how much time she has spent in that tree, but I suspect it is significant.

Trees have served as the source of inspiration for scientists’ careers, writers’ metaphors, and musicians’ nostaglia.

One of our science writers at Promega tells this story about an early “botanical” experiment he and his grandmother performed:

“When I was four, my grandma helped me plant a ‘helicopter’ in a butter dish. It slowly graduated to a Cool Whip container, then a family-sized takeout tub from a spaghetti joint. It’s now the largest tree on my parents’ property.” –Jordan Villanueva

When I was in college, the campus quad was lined with ancient Ginkgo trees that filled my morning walks to my fall classes with shimmering gold leaf. I remember those trees with such fondness that the first tree I planted when I moved to Wisconsin was a Ginkgo tree.

There’s something about trees…we wax poetic and become nostalgic; we include them in our literature and art as important symbols and teachers of life lessons.

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In Vitro Transcription: Common Causes of Reaction Failure

Posted on by Kelly Grooms
FemaleWhiteLab-AAES001042, In Vitro Transcription

A widely used molecular biology technique, in vitro transcription uses bacteriophage DNA-dependent RNA polymerases to synthesize template-directed RNA molecules. Enzymes like bacteriophage SP6, T3 and T7 RNA polymerases are used to produce synthetic RNA transcripts, which can be used as hybridization probes, as templates for in vitro translation applications, or in structural studies (X-ray crystallography and NMR). Synthesized RNA transcripts are also used for studying cellular RNA functionality in processes such as splicing, RNA processing, intracellular transport, viral infectivity and translation.

Problems in the transcription reaction can result in complete failure (i.e., no transcript generated) or in transcripts that are the incorrect size (i.e., shorter or longer than expected). Below is a discussion of the most common causes of in vitro transcription problems.

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