Here you will find the musings of John. Some of these were written almost a decade ago now but they remain relevant today. We welcome your feedback.
Killing that DNA
You’ve done the hard work – you’ve got good quality RNA. You’ve seen ribosomal bands on a gel (or *cough* Fragment Analyzer). A good RQN/RIN (if that’s what you go by) and everything’s great. Now to get rid of the DNA Quick check (perform a PCR directly on appropriate amount of RNA) and often there’s […]
I have ‘what’ in my sample?
Reagent contamination in PCR has long been documented – not only by operators but also from commercial sources long before those operators ever laid DNA-ridden hands on them. While contamination of some/many Taq polymerase enzymes with residual host E. coli DNA has had attention, little attention has been paid to the ubiquitous DNA extraction kits. […]
Killing that DNA
You’ve done the hard work – you’ve got good quality RNA. You’ve seen ribosomal bands on a gel (or *cough* Fragment Analyzer). A good RQN/RIN (if that’s what you go by) and everything’s great. Now to get rid of the DNA Quick check (perform a PCR directly on appropriate amount of RNA) .. .and often […]