Plasmid preps are to science what salt is to cooking. They’re so common that nobody notices, but nothing can be done without them. There is no mention of this step in any published paper, nobody mentions them in any activity report, no comments are made on how much time is actually spent on it.

But let’s face it: it takes time, as simple and as usual as it may be. A couple of days, spent here and there. It’s so well planned in your weekly agenda, it’s such a habit, that you don’t even think about it. It’s just routine. When you’ve done a plasmid prep a couple of times, there’s nothing new to learn about it. It’s like riding a bike, once you know how, you don’t even notice any more.

But it takes time…

As with this painted representation of (surrealist!) DNA, to a certain extent, molecular cloning is an art.

Unfortunately for newcomers, or fortunately for experts, it’s required for many downstream applications including protein production and cell engineering to develop cell-based assays. ORF expression is also a major tool for understanding a protein function via overexpression study.

In short, to develop the potential of cell biology research, it’s often a question of adopting a “smart molecular biology” approach. Along the way though, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to avoid using cloning vectors and other related molecular cloning tools.

However… luckily, fast and simple cloning is possible! Mainly thanks to the smart kits and systems that I’ll explain more about in this post. And for your complete peace of mind, there are also ORF expression clones…

CRISPR-CAS9 is a powerful technology for gene editing. It allows targeted modifications into the genome of the cell lines, IPSCs and ESCs. Despite the principle being pretty simple, in practice its use requires some expertise, and it can even turn into a time consuming adventure… That’s why the best way to benefit from it is most certainly through affordable services.

RNAi offer >70% knock-down of the gene expression, and thanks to CRISPR-CAS9 gene editing, it’s possible make a complete knock-out. The TUNR system offers the possibility to obtain intermediates with high, medium and low reduction of the gene expression and with the same quality of targeting as for knock-out. Let’s take a closer look at the TUNR technique.