Speaking of Mol Bio

• Sustainability Made Simple: Greener Choices in Molecular Biology

  Sustainability in the lab isn't just a trend—it's a responsibility. In this quick but powerful Mol Bio Minutes episode, sustainability expert Sune Lund Sporring shares actionable tips to reduce energy use, manage lab waste, and transition to greener materials like Thermo Fisher’s Sustain Series bio-based plastics.Discover the difference between bio-based and biodegradable, why second-generation feedstocks are a game-changer, and how to make low-impact changes without compromising performance. Learn how small shifts—like using aluminum beads instead of water in a bath or switching to carbon-reduced plastics—can significantly cut your lab’s carbon footprint. And remember: if greener options aren’t available, your demand can help shape the market.Helpful resource links mentioned in this episode:My Green Lab – Facts and resources about lab sustainabilityEnergy use of fume hoods – Energy use and savings ideas for fume hoodsGreener by Design – Thermo Fisher’s approach to green solutionsLab Armor™ Beads – A sustainable option to replace water in water bathsInstrument trade up program – trade in your equipment to be green and give it a second lifeLab plastic waste – Stats about plastic waste in labsDoing something about it – Thermo Fisher’s lower carbon plastics solutionSustain Series PCR plastics – Lower carbon footprint, without workflow interruptionReasons to believe – Fact sheet about Sustain Series PCR plastics Subscribe to get future episodes as they drop and if you like what you’re hearing we hope you’ll share a review or recommend the series to a colleague.  Visit the Invitrogen School of Molecular Biology to access helpful molecular biology resources and educational content, and please share this resource with anyone you know working in molecular biology. For Research Use Only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.

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• From bats to cancer – the power of gene regulation

  Join us for an insightful conversation with Dr. Nadav Ahituv, a leader in human genetics and gene regulation at UCSF. He shares his personal journey from scoliosis patient to genetic researcher, exploring the mysteries of non-coding DNA, massively parallel reporter assays, and CRISPR-based therapeutic innovations.We dive into his lab’s diverse projects, from decoding bat wing development and diet adaptation to tackling complex diseases like scoliosis and cancer through gene modulation. Learn how cloning is used alongside technologies like AI, genome-wide sequencing, and CRISPR to revolutionize our understanding of regulatory elements and shape the future of precision medicine.Plus, discover how a surprising approach—using modified fat cells—could be a game-changer in cancer therapy. This episode is a must-listen for anyone fascinated by the intersection of genetics, technology, and evolution. Subscribe to get future episodes as they drop and if you like what you’re hearing we hope you’ll share a review or recommend the series to a colleague.  Visit the Invitrogen School of Molecular Biology to access helpful molecular biology resources and educational content, and please share this resource with anyone you know working in molecular biology. For Research Use Only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.

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• No more smears – expert tips for electrophoresis success

  With prior Mol Bio Minutes episodes covering DNA form migration and staining considerations for nucleic acid gel electrophoresis, we tie it all together with this great set of overall tips, tricks and resources for the topic. Anyone that’s ever run a gel has undoubtedly produced gels with smeared, faint or poorly separated bands. What causes these and how can you avoid them?  Well, Aistė Polikaitytė, Scientist at Thermo Fisher Scientific is here to cover the likely causes and troubleshooting tips to help avoid the most common gel issues. She touches on how much sample to load, the importance of reagent selection, gel preparation, separation conditions, staining, as well as purification and contamination considerations. Helpful resource links mentioned in this episode:Selection guide for electrophoresis dyes and buffersLearn how using precast E-Gel agarose gel can help avoid common issuesA helpful troubleshooting guide for nucleic acid gel electrophoresisView an on-demand webinar covering these topics in more detail Subscribe to get future episodes as they drop and if you like what you’re hearing we hope you’ll share a review or recommend the series to a colleague.  Visit the Invitrogen School of Molecular Biology to access helpful molecular biology resources and educational content, and please share this resource with anyone you know working in molecular biology. For Research Use Only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.

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• Biologically removing the forever from “forever chemicals”

  It could be argued that biology has always boiled down to chemistry, and that chemistry has always boiled down to physics. However, not many would deny that the fields of biology and chemistry are overlapping more than ever, with both leveraging computing methods, also more than ever. This conversation with Dr. Ramesh Jha, Technical Staff Member at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), crosses biology, chemistry, and computing methods. The work of his biome team at LANL uses computational tools to inform the design of enzymes that are produced via PCR-based cloning and then expressed in microbes. They use fluorescent gene circuits in these microbes, along with flow cytometry, to screen these large libraries for advantageous gain-of-function variants. When they find an interesting mutation, they isolate it, sequence it, and produce and evaluate those biocatalytic enzymes for bioremediation, biomanufacturing, and other important applications. Ramesh makes this complex and interdisciplinary science approachable and gives hope to how it could help address problems of “forever chemicals” and other environmental and manufacturing challenges. Join us for this interesting and inspiring conversation.  Subscribe to get future episodes as they drop and if you like what you’re hearing we hope you’ll share a review or recommend the series to a colleague.  Visit the Invitrogen School of Molecular Biology to access helpful molecular biology resources and educational content, and please share this resource with anyone you know working in molecular biology. For Research Use Only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.

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• A clear picture – staining tips for gel electrophoresis

  You can run the perfect agarose gel to separate your nucleic acid fragments but if you don’t stain and image the gel properly, it’s all for not. In this second installment of Mol Bio Minutes we take a look at the staining considerations for nucleic acid gel electrophoresis with Paulius Palaima, Product Manager at Thermo Fisher Scientific. He covers the range of stains and staining approaches available while calling out pros, cons and considerations for each. How these recommendations change, depending on your sample, is also covered in this approachable but informative episode. Helpful resource links mentioned in this episode:A helpful DNA stain selection guideRNA stain options and detailsEffects of dyes on gel electrophoresis properties Subscribe to get future episodes as they drop and if you like what you’re hearing we hope you’ll share a review or recommend the series to a colleague.  Visit the Invitrogen School of Molecular Biology to access helpful molecular biology resources and educational content, and please share this resource with anyone you know working in molecular biology. For Research Use Only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.

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