Conservation of protein sequences: “conserved” vs. “conservative” (substitutions)
Don’t confuse “conserved” with “conservative” – no, I’m not getting political on you. Instead, I’m talking about the makeup of […]
Bespoke . . . synthesis, treatments, assays, etc.
Increasing numbers of “bespoke” treatments are found these days as gene therapies and cell therapies start hitting the market. Often […]
Translational readthrough of PTCs (premature termination codons), suppressor tRNAs (sup-tRNAs), and PERT
Primary (research) article for PERT: Pierce, S. E.; Erwood, S.; Oye, K.; An, M.; Krasnow, N.; Zhang, E.; Raguram, A.; Seelig, […]
Off-target and on-target activity & effects
On-target activity/on-target effects: A molecule designed (or at least theorized) to bind one thing, the “target” (e.g., a drug binding […]
Be legendary! Scientific figures & legends, a practical guide
Figures are core to scientific papers. (And they’re often freely accessible even when the paper isn’t). You can learn a […]
Unintentional error: Avoiding common experimental artifacts (especially batch & positional effects)
Although outright fraud and research misconduct definitely does occur in science sometimes, many “reproducibility” problems in science stem from poor […]
Techniques for buffer exchange (Desalting columns, Dialysis, & Diafiltration): Pros, cons, & going-ons
The 3 D’s of buffer exchange! There are 3 main techniques for buffer exchange of proteins (or nucleic acids): Desalting […]
Demystifying (and de-mythifying) grad school – things to know about what it is and isn’t
Part of my goal with some of the work I do is to de-mystify the hidden curriculum aspects of academic […]
