Sigma-Aldrich has released TransPlex Whole Transcriptome Amplification technology, WTA2, for amplifying total RNA from a variety of tissue sources such as animals, plants, and microorganisms. WTA2, which is optimized for formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded tissue samples, creates a cDNA library from total RNA and amplifies the cDNA in a single PCR reaction. TransPlex reagents and protocols, optimized to ensure clonal and stochastic amplification of all expressed genes and exons, allow RNA samples to be amplified 1,000 to 10,000-fold in less than four hours, according to the company. The technology is designed for use with RNA that is partially degraded, as in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue derived from tumor samples.
Bioconductor 2.3 is available here. The new release includes 36 new software packages as well as changes to existing packages. Seven new packages — BSgenome, Biostrings, ShortRead, IRanges, HilbertVis, HilbertVisGUI, and rtracklayer — are suited to analyze second-generation DNA sequence data. In total, Bioconductor 2.3 comprises 294 software packages and is compatible with the recently released R 2.8.0.
Bibby Scientific has launched TC-3000X, a new thermal cycler that is part of its Techne brand. The instrument has two interchangeable block options, a 48-well block for 0.2 ml tubes or a 30-well block for 0.5 ml tubes. The defined-pressure, heated lid is height-adjustable.