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Nailing It Down

Feb 21, 2009

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.

Breaking News
The Scan

Pig Organ Transplants Considered

The Wall Street Journal reports that the US Food and Drug Administration may soon allow clinical trials that involve transplanting pig organs into humans.

'Poo-Bank' Proposal

Harvard Medical School researchers suggest people should bank stool samples when they are young to transplant when they later develop age-related diseases.

Spurred to Develop Again

New Scientist reports that researchers may have uncovered why about 60 percent of in vitro fertilization embryos stop developing.

Science Papers Examine Breast Milk Cell Populations, Cerebral Cortex Cellular Diversity, Micronesia Population History

In Science this week: unique cell populations found within breast milk, 100 transcriptionally distinct cell populations uncovered in the cerebral cortex, and more.