The Drosophila melanogaster Genetic Reference Panel
Mackay, Richards et al., Nature
North Carolina State University's Trudy Mackay and her colleagues present the Drosophila melanogaster Genetic Reference Panel, "a community resource for analysis of population genomics and quantitative traits."
Salad Spinner Centrifuge
Shoba Anantha at Bitesize Bio writes that, during a recent visit to another lab, she was surprised to see that researchers had modified a Bed Bath and Beyond staple — a salad spinner — for use as a benchtop plate centrifuge. "We tried to built one in my lab and we loved it so much that we now have one sitting near almost every PCR plate instrument, and have even gifted a couple to others," the Anantha writes. Materials for the "minfuge" include, of course, a salad spinner (the author chose the Zyliss brand pull-cord model), multi-purpose cable ties from a hardware store, and 96-well plate inserts.
I know a customer in a
I know a customer in a forensics lab that has used this device for years! They've even devised a validation protocol for it as part of their GLP!