Something I notice often in supervising new graduate students is their frustration with the irreproducibility of their biological data. For example, I am asked frequently ‘‘how many biological replicates do I need for qRT-PCR’’? The answer, of course, lies first with the students themselves. They need as many replicates as will persuade them of the validity of their observations. However, for m...

Reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) has traditionally required time-consuming RNA extraction and purification. This report demonstrates that one can completely avoid the RNA extraction step in RT-PCR by basing the comparison of samples on cell number rather than micrograms of total RNA. A new method for lysing cells while preserving RNA is described. RT-PCR is carried out (i) by rapidly freezing...

PURPOSE The purpose was to design a new construction containing influenza virus (H1N1) M2e gene and HA2 gene by bioinformatics approach, cloning the construct in to Escherichia coli and produce M2e-HA2 peptide. METHODS The procedure was done by virus cultivation in SPF eggs, hemagglutination assay (HA), RNA isolation, RT-PCR, primers designed (DNAMAN 4 and Oligo7), virtual fusion construction...