29/05/13: iGEM 2013 Special Offer from IDT
May 29, 2013 by Peter · Leave a Comment
Integrated DNA Technologies (IDT) is proud to be an iGEM Corporate Sponsor for 2013. IDT are also partnering with iGEM 2013 teams to help them achieve their goals. This year IDT are offering 50% off gBlocks® Gene Fragments. Learn more at this link
Any iGEM teams in Denmark and Sweden who are interested in help, please contact me via the contact page.
21/05/13: BioCision’s Catalog for 2013 is Available!
May 21, 2013 by Peter · Leave a Comment
BioCision keep on adding new products to their existing line. As always, the quality is excellent and if you really care about your biological samples, as well as reproducibility in your experiments. You can get a copy of the latest version of their catalog online by clicking on the picture above, or the link below. For once, I actually prefer the online version, because it allows you to see the figures rather better than print version, where they are a bit small.
Why not ask for a demonstration? I have most of the BioCision product lines available for testing. These are really excellent products that work as described, but you are welcome to try them out first.
Download BioCision’s 2013 Catalog
13/05/13: IDT Make Upgrades to Their Gene Synthesis Capabilities
May 13, 2013 by Peter · Leave a Comment
From May 13th, 2013, the following changes regarding Genes and MiniGene Synthetic Genes will take effect:
| Product | Previous Length | New Length | Previous Guaranteed Yield | New Guaranteed Yield |
| MiniGene™ Synthetic Genes | 25–400 bp | 25–500 bp |
2 µg |
4 µg |
| Genes | 401+ bp | 501+ bp |
2 µg |
4 µg |
Please check IDT’s website for updated pricing (as far as I can see it has not changed).
As always, all Genes and MiniGene constructs are sequence verified on both strands prior to shipping. Sequence information, including chromatograms, a plasmid map, and a FASTA file, is available.
If you have any questions about these changes or IDT’s gene synthesis service in general, please contact IDT at genes@idtdna.com.
18/02/13: Special Promotion on Palm PCR Instruments
February 18, 2013 by Peter · 1 Comment
Ahram Biosystems, the inventors of the Palm PCR have done an incredible job in reducing the price of the instrument, so that I am able to make a special price offer to anyone who wants to purchase an instrument. And yes, you can try it out first!
For those who don’t know, the Palm PCR is probably one of the coolest instruments currently available to life scientists. However, like many new technologies, it seems to be a product in search of an application. So far, less than a handful of researchers have tried the instrument out, or have discussed applications with me, which is somewhat disappointing. I always thought scientists were meant to be curious and pushing the boundaries. Here is a device that allows the user to run a PCR at the same spot that a test sample is located. There are possibilities for detecting the product of the PCR reaction on-site too. Isn’t that interesting to someone?
Check out this video to see the Palm PCR in action.
16/01/13: Notification of Agilent Automation Roadshow – Discover the New Encore Liquid Handling System
January 16, 2013 by Peter · Leave a Comment
Agilent are doing a European-wide tour of their new Encore Liquid Handling System. That means it will be possible for customers in Denmark to view the new instrument on Thursday February 21st, in Copenhagen. Attendance at the meeting is free. The overview of the roadshow is as follows:
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Personally, I think this looks like a great instrument and I think anyone interested in laboratory automation would be crazy to pass up the chance to see it in action.
You can register for the meeting here, or by clicking on the banner above.
09/01/13: Cool New Promotion from BioCision!
January 9, 2013 by Peter · Leave a Comment
BioCision have launched a new promotion for the New Year! It is very simple – spend just EUR 150 on a BioCision product and receive a free mini (1L) ice pan, or a free multi-pack of TruCoolTM cryoboxes.
Open This PDF for More Details
21/09/12: Seminar on Next Generation Sequencing, Aarhus, 21st November 2012
September 21, 2012 by Peter · Leave a Comment
The recently established organisation DSMOME (Dansk Selskab for Molekylær Medicin – Danish Society for Molecular Medicine) is organising a seminar on “Next Generation Sequencing,” 0930-1615 in Aarhus, just a few minutes walk from Aarhus central station.
Details of the meeting can be found here on DSMOME’s website, or you can go direct to the registration page. Note that registration is limited to 70 attendees.
Don’t forget to sign up for You Do Bio’s Newsletter to get a regular – monthly, if I keep my act together – summary of all that is new and splendid in the product lines represented by You Do Bio.
17/09/12: BioCision Launch CoolBox XT Workstations + Promo!
September 17, 2012 by Peter · Leave a Comment
I am always impressed by both the creativity and quality that goes into BioCision’s products. I guess the company motto could be “death to ice,” or similar! This is particularly apt with the release of BioCision’s CoolBox XT Workstations. In summary, the CooBox XT Workstations provide over 16 hours of ice-free cooling for your samples without electricity or batteries.
If you are serious about reducing variability in the way your samples are handled at the lab bench, I believe that it is more than worth your time checking out BioCision’s product line.
There is a CoolBox XT Workstation promotion that you can also take advantage of here.
A very quick video explains the concept:
http://player.vimeo.com/video/44962411?autoplay=1&loop=1
09/08/12: Bravo Automated Liquid Handling System at DTU featured on Italian TV
August 9, 2012 by Peter · Leave a Comment
At the Technical University of Denmark’s (DTU) Multi Assay Core (DMAC) facility, they have had a Bravo automated liquid handling system installed for over 12 months for performing various functions, most notably sample preparation for next generation sequencing. One of DTU’s researchers, Thomas Sicheritz-Pontén was recently featured on Italian TV station RAI, in a science/medical slot.
The Bravo system features in the following video (starting about 00:03:45) if you are interested to see it in action: VIDEO
Thanks to Laurent Gautier for alerting me about this.
15/06/12: Going to the ESHG 2012? Two Symposiums of Interest
June 15, 2012 by Peter · Leave a Comment
The ESHG is one of the highlights of the conference season in Europe and is usually an incredibly popular meeting for researchers from Denmark and Sweden. So it should be again this year, with the conference being held in the German city of Nuremburg.
Two of the companies that are represented by You Do Bio will be holding their own satellite meetings at ESHG and both look good value:
1. Integrated DNA Technologies are holding the following satellite meeting: 
Saturday, June 23, 11.45 – 13.15 hrs, Room Budapest
Oligonucleotides for Clinical and Research Applications – Why Quality Matters
2. Agilent Technologies will be holding the following event:
Monday, June 25, 11.40 – 13.10 hrs, Room Istanbul
Revolutionizing Human Genetics Research with new target enrichment system and high-resolution Oligo FISH technologies
https://twitter.com/YouDoBio/status/213633335229034496
23/05/12: I will be at the ICG-Europe Conference, Copenhagen Biocenter, 24-25th May
May 23, 2012 by Peter · Leave a Comment
Agilent has forked out to be the main sponsor at the ICG-Europe Conference. There will be a rather large exhibition stand, with some cool instruments on display and at least three specialists from Agilent present. This is a great opportunity for anyone interested in genomics-related technologies to come along, particularly if you are interested in:
I will be there as well (the stand might be a little crowded). Hope you find time to come along and learn something new (since the Biocenter is public space, I assume anyone can come along, even if they are not attending the ICG-Europe Conference).
07/05/12: SureSelect XT2 (Pre-Capture Pooling) Now Available for Order
May 7, 2012 by Peter · Leave a Comment
A short bulletin from Agilent:
- XT2 available for order!
- SureSelect XT2 in 16, 96, and 480 sample sizes for the Illumina HiSeq and MiSeq platform
- Available for Human All Exon V4/V4+UTRs and custom
- Custom Target Enrichment from 0.5Mb -> 24Mb (0.5-2.9Mb custom now available!)
The most crucial aspect of this is that it highlights the long-awaited pre-capture pooling protocol from Agilent. Now, as a representative of Agilent, I have been quite impatient about this, as have many others. Customers were already asking for this product at about the same time SureSelect was first released (Feb 2009, if my memory is correct). However, I will say this for Agilent: their protocols are usually rock-solid when they are released, so for labs that want a reliable method for pre-capture pooling, I am pretty confident that this is a good option.
05/05/12: Some Useful Links Relevant to gBlocks
May 5, 2012 by Peter · Leave a Comment
IDT’s gBlocks are a great new product for anyone using traditional approaches to cloning or synthetic biology. Like any new technology, they take some getting used to. So, if you are a bit of a stick-in-the-mud, or a “late adapter” read the following and try to get inspired.
Easy Gene Assembly: gBlocks™ Gene Fragments (this article explains what gBlocks are)
Isothermal Assembly (how gBlocks can be assembled into full genes)
gBlocks User Guide (opens PDF file – all you need to know).
02/05/11: Ahram Biosystems Announces Launch of the New Economy Model F1-12 of Its Palm PCR Series
May 2, 2012 by Peter · Leave a Comment
This is an extract from a recent press release from Ahram Biosystems:
“Palm PCR F1-12, the economy model of the innovative Palm PCR series, is now on the market. It can amplify up to 1 kbp within 30 minutes in a small handheld, portable format
SANTA CLARA, Calif., April 23, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Ahram Biosystems, Inc., a leading innovator of new life science tools, today announced the launch of Palm PCR F1-12, the economy model of its innovative portable PCR system. The F1-12 system is a cost-effective, high-performance portable PCR system, delivering PCR amplification with high speed and sensitivity in a fully portable format.
The Palm PCR F1-12 system provides three “Standard Fast” speed levels delivering 30-cycle PCR amplification within 30 minutes down to 24 minutes. The amplification sensitivity reaches to near single-copy level below 10 copies. The dynamic range of the PCR amplification is up to 1 kbp.
Like other Palm PCR series, it is battery-powered (more than 4 hours of continuous operation on a single charge) and represents high temperature uniformity (less than +/- 0.1 degrees C) and a small footprint and light weight (71 mm x 121 mm x 47 mm or 2.8″ x 4.76″ x 1.85″, 350 g).
The high speed and high sensitivity of the F1-12 system and its affordable price make it ideal for a wide range of downstream applications that require fast and sensitive nucleic acid amplification. Examples include POCT (point-of-care testing), food quality assurance, forensics, educational uses and many other applications of genetic identification purposes. The battery-powered, full portability makes the F1-12 system particularly invaluable where in-field or on-site PCR amplification is crucial. The Palm PCR F1-12 system enables users to perform highly sensitive and accurate PCR amplification in a fully portable format while saving both money and time.”
You can read the full thing: Press Release-Ahram Biosystems-23 APRIL 2012.
27/04/12: Some Nice Customer Feedback (ZEN qPCR)
April 27, 2012 by Peter · 2 Comments
Following the successful qPCR assay design seminars held at the start of March 2012, a number of customers took up the opportunity to try out free qPCR assays. I recently got some nice feedback from one such customer. Always good to know that sometimes people can be helped.
This from a customer at Skejby Hospital in Aarhus:
“ I have tried the IDT ZEN probes and they are as I expected – much better than the ones we had, and our technician have ordered the real ones to use in our diagnostic assay “right away”.
It was very convincing 
with much lower background. Everybody was convinced by first look at the results!!!
I am happy that I got the opportunity at the right time ”
25/01/12: IDT Launch gBlocks, a Revolutionary New Approach to Gene Synthesis & Alternative to Cloning
January 25, 2012 by Peter · 1 Comment
I am sooo excited about this new product from IDT. By making genes more affordable, while significantly increasing the speed of delivery, IDT are making synthetic genes more accessible to labs than they have been before.
In short, gBlocks™ Gene Fragments are double-stranded, sequence-verified DNA blocks up to 500 bp in length that can be shipped in 3–4 working days. You define the sequence. Prices are great (EUR 89/DKK 662/ SEK 787), which makes them a realistic alternative to cloning. Users can simply order individual gBlocks, assemble them and drop them straight into their favourite vector.
Anyway, enough from me. If you want to learn some more, please visit the IDT website and try them out!
Update, 27th January:
There are several resources on isothermal assembly, which is one of the recommended methods by which gBlocks can be used to create larger gene fragments. Here is the protocol on the Megason Lab wiki page. The page also contains a link to the original Nature Methods paper, describing the technique.
I wonder if it is just a matter of time before a commercial kit comes out for this…
11/01/12: Video of Integrated DNA Technologies’ (IDT) European Facility
January 11, 2012 by Peter · Leave a Comment
It is great to be able to find further information on IDT available on the internet. I think that the following will be interesting to a lot of customers who are currently using IDT: A video of the IDT European facility in Leuven, Belgium. The US sites will have a lot of similarities of course. Have you ever wondered what a world-class oligonucleotide synthesis facility looks like? Wonder no more…
15/12/11: Agilent Launch the 2200 TapeStation System
December 15, 2011 by Peter · Leave a Comment
OK, I am way way behind in updating my news section. This particular product was launched about a month ago under the Agilent banner. I’ve already been on a couple of customer demonstrations with it and am very impressed with the ease-of-use and fast sample processing. This is coming from a huge fan of the 2100 Bioanalyzer (which is a brilliant instrument).
There is a short and informative video explaining the TapeStation system on You Tube, which I’ve embedded below. Please take a few minutes to watch it. You’ve gotta love the flying ScreenTapes:
The new Agilent 2200 TapeStation system offers scalable throughput and rapid results, making it an ideal solution for quality control of biological samples in next-generation sequencing (NGS), microrarray and qPCR workflows, as well as in protein purification and antibody production.
The 2200 TapeStation system uses credit card-sized, disposable Agilent ScreenTape that is available for DNA, RNA and protein applications. Sample analysis has never been so easy – simply load the 2200 TapeStation instrument with ScreenTape, loading tips, and your samples in tube strips or 96-well microtiter plates – and you will be reviewing results in approximately 1 minute per sample!
There is a demonstration TapeStation available in the Nordic countries that I can get access to. A demonstration will take about 90 minutes in total (it is really very fast). If you would like a demonstration, or would like to learn more, please contact me.
04/10/11: Information on Agilent’s Autumn Promotions for Genomics Researchers
October 4, 2011 by Peter · Leave a Comment
Agilent are running a bunch of promotions on genomics-related product this Autumn (actually it’s turning out to be the nicest time of year, given the wet Summer). They are summarized here:
- Bioreagents: Buy 3 Stratagene products, get the cheapest one for 1 DKK
- Brilliant III: Buy 1 kit of Brilliant III qPCR reagents, get a second one for free
- Genespring & microarrays: Get 50% off your Genespring data analysis software annual licence when you order > DKK 112K of genomics products
- SureSelect: Buy 1 SureSelect target enrichment kit and get a second one for free (valid for 5 to 25 reaction kits)
- SureCycler bundles: Combine our SureCycler 8800 PCR instrument with our Mx 3005P real-time PCR instrument or with our microchip electrophoresis system (Bioanalyzer 2100 or Lab 901 TapeStation) and get 30% off your bundle
You can also go to the Official Agilent Autumn Promotion page.
Save time by contacting me directly if you are interested.
26/09/11: Symposium on 2nd Generation Sequencing, Copenhagen 28th September 2011
September 26, 2011 by Peter · Leave a Comment
This looks like being a really interesting meeting. Agilent will have an exhibit there, so if you plan on coming along, I hope to meet you.
Symposium on 2nd Generation Sequencing, Wednesday 28th September 2011, Lundbeck Auditorium, Biocenter, Ole Maaloes Vej 5, Copenhagen.
The meeting agenda can be downloaded here.
