Newsletter Archive

What’s your Western blot success rate? According to a report on GEN, 41% of researchers admit that their Western blots are unsuccessful at least 25% of the time.

Team Boster wishes you happy holidays and continued success for the new year. Keep checking our promotions page for sweet deals in 2018 and get better results with Boster!

It's flu season, so keep your immune system boosted! Learn about the immune system by studying 2 pathway maps related to Immunology and Inflammation - the Toll-Like Receptors Pathway and the NF-KappaB p50-p65 Pathway.

ELISA is a convenient and simple method to quantitatively or qualitatively detect peptides, proteins, antibodies, and hormones in samples, rendering it as one of the most widely used immunoassays. Despite the many advantages of conducting ELISA, there are some mistakes that could quickly turn your ELISA experiment sour.

ASCB 2017 Cell Biology Conference is in Philadelphia this December 2-6! Join scientists around the globe to explore cell structure and function this winter! Visit BosterBio's Booth #914, and get a 12" plushy doll of our mascot, free phone accessories, technical resources, pathway maps, and more! See you soon!

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is capable of triggering several pathways. In particular, CMV stimulates the MAPK pathway to initiate cellular processes related to transcriptional regulation. Another pathway CMV can activate is the Akt/PKB pathway, which promotes cell survival, growth, and proliferation.

Planning to design multicolor panels for FACS antibodies? Boster presents 6 helpful tips to keep in mind when designing multicolor flow cytometry panels! Don’t miss the FACS resources and recommendations we’ve compiled in this newsletter!

Neuroscience 2017 is November 11-15 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. Join 30,000+ colleagues from over 80 countries at the world’s largest conference for global neuroscience. Visit Boster Bio's Booth #702, and get a 12" plushy doll of our mascot, free phone accessories, technical resources, pathway maps, and more! See you in 3 weeks!

Introducing Desert Hedgehog (DHH), Sonic Hedgehog (SHH), and wait for it...Dracula Hedgehog!! All jokes aside, we’re focusing on 2 signaling pathways this week - the Hedgehog Signaling Pathway & the DNA Methylation and Transcriptional Repression Pathway.

There are 3 situations when an FMO control is highly recommended! The Fluorescence Minus One (FMO controls) are staining controls that contain all the antibodies of a panel minus 1 of them. It measures the spillover of all those other fluorophores in the channel of the missing antibody, and is used to identify and gate cells in the context of data spread due to the multiple fluorophores. It is a stronger negative control than the regular unstained control as it takes into account how the other stains in the panel impact the channel that is left out. Read on for technical tips and tricks when it comes to flow cytometry (FACS).

Save time this year with our sensitive all-in-one kits and ready-to-use reagents available now. BosterBio's Membrane Protein Extraction Kit, Mitochondira Isolation Kit, Cytoplasmic and Nuclear Protein Extraction Kit, and more are convenient research tools for protein analysis. Get the WB reagents catalog with troubleshooting eBook included! Full protocols included in our downloadable Western Blot eBook. Restock your labs before back-to-school sale ends in October, all BosterBio products are performance guaranteed or your money back! Fast global delivery and re-ordering options, at a comparitively low price. See details here...

Immunology is a complex and thoroughly researched topic today. Download your PDF study guides for IL-6 Receptor Pathway and IL-18 Signaling Pathway to reference at your convenience. The pathogenesis of many autoimmune diseases, multiple myeloma, and even prostate cancer are affected by the functions of IL6 and IL6R. Meanwhile, IL-18 is a proinflammatory cytokine which works with IL-12 to induce cell-mediated immunity following infection. IL-18 is able to induce severe inflammatory responses, suggesting it plays a role in various inflammatory disorders. Get your immunology posters, formatted in 8.5x11 inch (letter size).

Do you Western Blot? Utilize our summary workflow for a standard Western Blot protocol, with necessary reagents for each step included! Following protein transfer, it is important to block the unreacted sites on the membrane using inert proteins and/or nonionic detergent to reduce levels of nonspecific protein binding during the assay. Blocking buffers should block all unreacted sites without disrupting target protein-membrane interactions or affect epitope availability. In this newsletter, learn the 3 key factors to consider when choosing an appropriate blocking agent for your specific Western Blot experiment!

The following 2 pathways are important for cancer research studies...

Stathmin is essential for the regulation of the cell cytoskeleton, which is required for numerous cell processes including regulating the cell cycle, cytoplasmic organization, cell division and cell motility.

WNT signaling has been identified for its role in carcinogenesis, in maintaining stem cells, and its function in embryonic development. Three WNT signaling pathways have been identified.

If you are performing IHC experiments, you may need to optimize your antigen retrieval methods. Techniques generally fall into two main categories: protease-induced epitope retrieval (PIER) and heat-induced epitope retrieval (HIER). In general, HIER has a much higher success rate and is recommended over PIER methods. The protocol for HIER must be optimized for each sample tissue, fixation method, and antigen. This method is especially time-, temperature-, buffer-, and pH-sensitive, and the best condition must be determined empirically. Here is a step-wise protocol that may be helpful for your immunohistochemistry experiment.

Counting cells before the staining procedure and the analysis/live sort is not up for debate! Cell numbers affect the staining quality, the FACS instrument reading, as well as the efficacy of any downstream assay, in case the cells are live sorted. Furthermore, cells are steadily lost during the staining procedure and it is therefore imperative that enough cells are available at the start of the experiment to compensate for the inevitable losses. There are various methods available for counting cells which are explained in this technical newsletter.

Optimizing your ELISA immunoassay can be a long and tedious process. Fortunately, using checkboard titration could help you optimize your ELISA assay more quickly, efficiently, and accurately. Here is a how-to-guide for utilizing this method in your next ELISA protocol.

Antigen retrieval is often necessary when performing IHC experiments. Here are some key points to know about HIER and PIER methods of antigen retrieval. This protocol step needs to be optimized for every antigen of interest.

If you perform flow cytometry, these recipe tips for FACS Buffers may assist you! We recommend these ingredients to improve your cell sorting process.

Every ELISA kit user comes across the need to troubleshoot their assay at some point. Saturated signals can result from many different possible causes, and this could make troubleshooting complicated. Dr. Booster has come up with a table of recommended solutions for troubleshooting your ELISA assay. If this table does not help your specific experiment, please feel free to contact Boster's technical support at any time. Get better results with Boster!

The purpose of using a secondary antibody is to amplify the primary antibody and antigen interactions signals. If you need secondary antibodies for your experiment, then you probably know there are many elements to consider when choosing the right antibody such as species reactivity. Dr. Booster has a few guidelines for you to keep in mind about secondary antibodies. Be sure to take a look and confirm everything is good to go.

With today's selection of fluorochromes, FACS panels can become quite complex. Working with multiple colors and antibodies will require the appropriate experimental controls in order to properly interpret the data results. Check to make sure you have included all the appropriate controls before your cell sorting experiment! This convenient mini guide to FACS staining controls by Dr. Booster should be a helpful reference tool.

Are you preparing for a FACS experiment? Here’s a 10 point checklist to help you get ready prior to cell sorting. We suggest going through this checklist beforehand, as your cell sorting process may go more quickly and efficiently if you read the following tips.