European Biotechnologist

Scientists at The University of Nottingham have opened the way for more accurate research into new ways to fight dangerous bacterial infections by proving a long-held theory about how bacteria communicate with each other.

Researchers in the University’s School of Molecular Medical Sciences have shown for the first time that the effectiveness of the bacteria’s communication method, a process called ‘quorum sensing’, directly depends on the density of the bacterial population. This work will help inform wider research into how to stop bacteria talking to each other with the aim of switching off their toxin production.

As some pathogenic organisms are increasingly resistant to traditional antibiotics, medical researchers around the world, including scientists at The University of Nottingham, are trying to find other ways of fighting infection. This new work involves using ‘quorum quenching’ compounds which interfere with bacterial signalling and disrupt their social lives.

This reminds me of a great Google Talk posted to YouTube last September. Check it out:

Click to read the full story.

Summer is coming which means that it is time to prepare for summer students! Over the next few months, we will try to post material that will help you successfully integrate first-time students into your lab with the least amount of pain possible.

In the first video in this series, Dr. Bulbul Chakravarti of the Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences explains how to pour and run a huge polyacrylamide gel. If your students can handle this task, they will easily be able to pour and run much smaller gels that are routinely used in most molecular biology labs.

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc.’s Trans-Blot® Turbo™ protein transfer system was awarded the Scientists’ Choice Award for Best New Life Science Product of 2011. The awards, presented by SelectScience, an online publication for life scientists, celebrate the latest laboratory equipment making a difference in labs. Honorees were chosen by SelectScience’s members in the research community.

More than 30,000 members of SelectScience were invited to nominate their favorite products of 2011. Nominations were narrowed down to a short list of the most popular products within each category and members were then invited to vote for a winner in each category. Honorees were announced at two major life science conferences held in April: the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and Analytica.

The Trans-Blot Turbo is a rapid, efficient, and reliable blotting system that allows researchers to transfer proteins from gel to membrane in as little as three minutes in a reproducible fashion. The system is also an integral part of Bio-Rad’s new V3 Western Workflow™, a portfolio of products that cuts time to results in half and provides quality control checkpoints throughout the immunoblotting process.

“We are honored to receive such a notable recognition from SelectScience’s highly regarded community of scientists,” said Ryan Short, Western Blotting Marketing Manager. “This award reflects Bio-Rad’s commitment to developing solutions that align with the needs of the research community.”

Click on the image below to see the award ceremony. The video will play in a new window.

To learn more about the speed and efficiency the Trans-Blot Turbo transfer system offers, visit www.bio-rad.com/ad/tbt.

Benchfly is an amazing website with videos, tips and tricks that enable scientists to share protocols with researchers worldwide. The site is the brain-child of founder Alan Marnett and has grown in the last several years to include a gazillion useful videos and oodles of useful information for the average bench biologist.

In the following video, Alan shows us a great trick for preventing leaks when pouring plates for SDS-PAGE.

Bio-Rad Laboratories V3 Western Workflow™ makes the BioTechniques video of the week. Check it out by clicking on the picture below (video will open in a new window).