Latest news from Lucigen

How CRISPR screening tools have advanced with Endura competent cells

BIOSEARCH | How KASP genotyping works

LUCIGEN | Nucleic Acid Therapeutics Toolbox: Givosiran, the first liver-targeted siRNA drug

The success of small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) therapeutics in treating rare genetic liver disorders has spurred significant investment to expand these drugs to more common conditions, from hypertension to hepatitis B.1 The growth in the field has only been possible thanks to alterations to the oligonucleotides that enhance siRNA stability and efficacy. These include nucleotide […]

Lucigen | Controlling for contamination in qPCR testing

qPCR testing is usually the method of choice when high sensitivity and specificity are required. For instance, in diagnostic and forensic applications, qPCR allows the crucial detection of minute amounts of target material. While sensitivity is a significant advantage of qPCR this same trait also makes it vulnerable to contamination, leading to inaccurate results. In […]

Lucigen | Set up and walk away: same day targeted genotyping

Accelerate breeding programmes with high-speed, high-throughput NGS workflows Designing molecular breeding programmes to screen for desirable traits in plants and livestock can accelerate breeding cycles and enable precise genotype selection. But processing thousands of samples — with potentially complex genomes or difficult sample types — to deliver results within critical breeding windows is a major […]

Lucigen | Ditch the spin columns without compromising on nucleic acid quality

Whether you’re working with samples for PCR or sequencing, it’s worth questioning what type of extraction or purification method would work well with your downstream application. Are there potential time and cost efficiencies? Do you need ultra-pure nucleic acid, or will a simple crude prep do the job just as well? There are a few […]

Lucigen | How to design mRNA therapeutics for scalable success

The recent Nobel Prize awarded to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman underlined the impact their breakthroughs in mRNA technology had in combating COVID-19. This new class of therapeutics is poised to have an increasingly important role in the future of healthcare. This blog post outlines some of the considerations for the design, production and purity […]

Lucigen | How to select an effective nucleic acid isolation method for human diagnostics.

Molecular testing protocols for pathogen detection and diagnosing human diseases require reliable and high-quality isolation of genetic material from diverse sample types. There are many extraction and purification technologies available and choosing the right one for your needs requires some planning and evaluation. Before deciding which isolation method best suits your needs, you may wish […]

Lucigen | Molecular marvels: choosing the most suitable reverse transcriptase

Image credit: HIV Reverse Transcriptase. RCSB Protein Data Bank. The Wellcome Collection. Reverse transcriptases (RTs) are enzymes that can generate complementary DNA (cDNA) from an RNA template. RTs are RNA-dependent DNA polymerases, which were initially discovered in retroviruses. They now have widespread applications in various molecular biology techniques used for biomedical research and molecular diagnostics. […]

Lucigen | How to choose the right competent cells for phage display

Since Humira (adalimumab) became the first approved monoclonal antibody therapy developed using phage display in 2002, it has sold more than any other drug in history.1,2 Phage display is a technique that allows for screening astronomical numbers of proteins for potent binders, and it is now one of the most powerful ways of creating high-affinity […]