Nick at Bitesize Bio offers tips on how to get the best results from your sequencing run. Among the ideas: use good miniprep kits; do PCR purification; and get the primers right. "Most (but not all) of the time, the quality of the results you get back from the sequencing lab are within your control. Most (but not all!!) sequencing labs are pretty well set up so the source of any problems is normally the quality of the template and primers you provide," he says.