Monthly Archives: February 2016

American Heart Month Sponsor: The American Heart Association (http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/)

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for men and women in the United States. Every year, 1 in 4 deaths are caused by heart disease.

The good news? Heart disease can often be prevented when people make healthy choices and manage their health conditions. Communities, health professionals, and families can work together to create opportunities for people to make healthier choices.

Make a difference in your community: Spread the word about strategies for preventing heart disease and encourage people to live heart healthy lives.

How can American Heart Month make a difference?

We can use this month to raise awareness about heart disease and how people can prevent it — both at home and in the community.

Here are just a few ideas:

• Encourage families to make small changes, like using spices to season their food instead of salt.

• Motivate teachers and administrators to make physical activity

Gene expression analysis is critical for understanding the transcriptome profiles of primary cells and how they directly influence the cells’ functionality. In addition, the transcriptome profile can affect cell proliferation, differentiation, senescence, or apoptosis. Traditional reporter-gene assays and cDNA microarrays often require either transfection of exogenous material or large quantities of high quality RNA. Primary cells, however, are notoriously difficult to transfect and the efficiency varies greatly between different cell types. In addition, primary cells have a finite lifespan and limited expansion capacity, making it difficult to obtain a high yield of RNA.  To help address these challenges, ScienCell Research Laboratories has developed GeneQuery™ qPCR Array kits for gene expression profiling which we validated and optimized using primary cell cDNA. GeneQuery™ will enable researchers to directly measure protein expression patterns of primary cells, stem cells, tissues,

qPCR array provides a quick, powerful and sensitive approach for gene expression profiling. To help our customers acquire accurate and consistent results, we are happy to share some tips for better qPCR.

Tip #1. Good primer design is the key to a successful qPCR array.

The success of a qPCR array depends on primer specificity and efficiency, so good primer design is extremely important.  The general rules of primer design for traditional PCR also apply for qPCR arrays: 40-60% GC content; 3'-end GC clamps; no repetitive sequence; no self-dimer, cross-dimer, or hairpin formation; and no long stretches of polypurines or polypyrimidines. Furthermore, there are additional aspects to consider when designing primers for qPCR arrays. First, the amplicon length should be around 100-200bp.  If the amplicon length is too short, the PCR product size will be too similar to the primer dimer to distinguish them from one another without sequencing.  If it is too long, the PCR efficiency will decrease