Producing specialized media for specific primary cell types may be best outsourced to specialized manufacturers in order to obtain optimal results for this type of cell culture, more tricky than standard cell line handling. Cell Applications, a GMP certified experienced manufacturer of human and animal primary cells, has developed media carefully optimized for the characteristics and requirements unique to their cells. Their expertise in the domain ensures optimal culture performance with thoroughly QC tested products. This post focuses on their media optimized for smooth muscle cells, and is aimed at helping you choose among the various media formats and related reagents for a complete cell culture tool box.

Excess of neutral lipids in cells has been found to be a prime suspect in various disease states, from Alzheimer’s to Atherosclerosis. In order to more easily characterize this state, Marker Gene Technology have developed an easy-to-use fluorescent kit to label and differentiate both neutral and polar lipids in live cells.

Tropical and vector-borne diseases account for more than 17% of all infectious diseases, causing more than 1 million deaths annually. Recognizing infected patients early in their clinical course is critical to researchers working in developing tools to prevent outbreaks. Meridian offer a range of antigens and antibodies suitable for the development of sensitive and specific immunoassays that detect tropical and vector-borne diseases. Their antibody pairs have already been validated in various immunoassays. You won’t waste time finding the right match, it has already been validated for you.

In the first part of this post, I’d like to introduce a selection of ready-to-use antibody pairs available for the main tropical and vector-borne diseases such as Chikungunya, Dengue, Ebola, Leishmania, Malaria, Yellow fever and Zika to name but a few. I’ll focus in the second part on Flavivirus immunoassay development with troubleshooting and usage tips coming from Meridian scientists to help overcoming high epitope cross-reactivity, a common issue in this specific virus family.

In the field of anti-ubiquitin antibodies many solutions are available on the market. But LifeSensors, a company specialized in Ubiquitin research field, have developped a monoclonal antibody called VU-1. Available in Europe only through tebu-bio, it’s recognised as the most efficient solution in terms of ubiquitin detection for Elisa, Western Blot and IHC applications.