New, innovative solutions designed to take your research to the next level
The InvitrogenTM E-GelTM Power Snap Electrophoresis System combines rapid, real-time nucleic acid analysis with high-resolution image capturing for superior convenience. The integrated design helps reduce workflow time and accelerate discovery.
Learn more
The InvitrogenTM SuperScriptTM IV One-Step RT-PCR System combines high-processivity InvitrogenTM SuperScriptTM IV Reverse Transcriptase and high-fidelity InvitrogenTM PlatinumTM SuperFiTM DNA Polymerase to provide unmatched one-step RT-PCR performance.
The Applied BiosystemsTM MiniAmpTM Thermal Cycler delivers the reliability you’ve come to expect from Applied BiosystemsTM technology in a compact, benchtop instrument.
The Applied BiosystemsTM MiniAmpTM Plus Thermal Cycler includes VeriFlexTM block technology for astonishingly easy PCR optimisation.
Your cloud-enabled Applied BiosystemsTM ProFlexTM, SimpliAmpTM, and MiniAmpTM Thermal Cyclers can be securely accessed anytime, anywhere, with any mobile device or desktop computer, allowing you to:
Design and share protocols
Schedule time to use an instrument
Start or stop a run
Check run status
Learn More
I have been passionate about science ever since I was young. Exploring, learning, and understanding the world around me sparked my aspiration for studying science. I was especially fascinated by organism diversity and how their diversity is controlled through the regulation of genetic information during development. I am continuing my passion for science and experience in development and molecular biology to Thermo Fisher Scientific, where I am researching and developing molecular tools and solutions for customers.
Vicki Hurless, PhD, R&D Scientist, Molecular Biology Thermo Fisher Scientific
We are passionate about helping you make your next scientific breakthrough, and our R&D team is constantly looking for ways to develop high-performing, reliable, and innovative products that will help save you precious time so you can accelerate your rate of discovery. See what researchers are saying about these innovations.
InvitrogenTM LentiArrayTM CRISPR Libraries
InvitrogenTM TrueCutTM Cas9 Protein v2 InvitrogenTM TrueGuideTM Synthetic gRNAur
With the purchase of any 3 Human or Mouse TrueGuide Synthetic crRNAs
Use promotion code RRNAPP. Terms and Conditions apply*. Offer expires 30th June 2018. Find out more
PhD, Staff Scientist in Hans-Peter Kiem’s laboratory, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Curiosity about how my surroundings and living things work; I love the excitement of carrying out experiments, the anticipation for results, and the fulfillment of knowing that I am contributing to the development of new medical treatments.
Knowing that I am working with cutting-edge technologies to develop therapies that will become available to patients in the next 5–10 years.
Our goal is to treat hereditary diseases by correcting the underlying mutation in bone marrow stem cells so that these cells will be curative after they are transplanted back to the affected patient. The correction of mutations can be done by means of non-infectious viral vectors or more recently with nucleases that target specific sites in DNA, also known as molecular scissors (such as CRISPR-Cas9). Our laboratory covers a wide range of research, spanning basic science all the way to clinical studies; examples of diseases we work on are blood disorders (sickle cell anaemia), severe combined immunodeficiency, and Fanconi anaemia (defects in DNA repair).
One challenge is to correct mutations and engineer DNA in bone marrow stem cells with high efficiency and without affecting the identity of these cells so that they will differentiate into all blood cell types and reconstitute the hematopoietic system of a patient after transplantation. Another big challenge is in the scale-up, where we are looking to engineer the DNA of several hundred millions of cells obtained from patients.
One solution is to find a nuclease platform (such as CRISPR-Cas9) and nuclease delivery method (such as electroporation) that can treat large numbers of cells with minimum toxicity and high efficiency so that they will be therapeutic after they repopulate the patient. Another solution is to refine our definition of true, long-term hematopoietic stem cells, which will decrease the number of these cells that need to be treated.
We have so far done two transplant experiments in a preclinical animal model aimed at treating heamoglobinopathies (blood disorders). The results are very encouraging, but we want to follow up on our treatment for over a year to really understand how effective and safe our therapy is.
Current gene editing technologies allow us to target virtually any site in the genome in pretty much any cell type. In addition, the improved efficacy of TrueCut Cas9 Protein v2 allows us to reduce the amount used and minimise toxicity.
Improved efficacy and safety of technology equals more potential to bring an effective therapy to the patient. These reagents are also available in large-scale [quantities] and in cGMP grade for easy translation to the clinic.
I am lucky to be working in such an exciting field with lots of potential to cure a variety of diseases. Nevertheless, researchers need to be vigilant to take all necessary steps to not move this approach too quickly to the patient to avoid any major setbacks.
Whether using cells as a model of disease, leveraging cells to make protein, or using cells as therapy, cell biologists inspire us. Scientists like Samantha Yammine and Caitlin Vander Weele are going beyond the bench for public outreach and using science as art.
Image courtesy of Ekaterina Turlova, University of Toronto
I am a PhD candidate in Dr. Derek van der Kooy’s neurobiology research lab at the University of Toronto researching stem cell hierarchies in the developing and adult mammalian brain. Our lab studies a variety of different stem and precursor cell populations, including those of the retina, corneal limbus, pancreas, and neural crest, but my thesis has revolved around a very rare population of neural stem cells. And by rare, I mean really rare—after I microdissect the thin stem cell niche surrounding the lateral ventricles in the mouse brain, my stem cells of interest comprise only 0.1% of the total cells dissected at most, and at some ages, they are only 0.01% of the population. But they are phenotypically really interesting cells—we recently published in Stem Cells that they act as a reserve pool for the more prominent neural stem cell population, so it’s been worth troubleshooting new, sensitive techniques to try to learn more about them.
Since our cells are so rare in bulk samples, we knew we’d have to continue improving our purification methods and experiment with new assays that are sensitive enough to detect signals from single cells. Fortunately, single-cell analyses have become more and more popular and I’ve found a lot of fantastic collaborators in Toronto to help me implement these techniques. After many workshops, literature searches, and planning meetings, we are currently having success studying embryonic precursors with several single-cell transcriptomic platforms thanks to help from technical experts from several other local labs.
I am excited to combine these new transcriptomics data with previous functional data I’ve collected on these rare neural stem cells and put forth some new additions to current neural stem and progenitor cell hierarchies. By better understanding the lineage relationships between the earliest cells of the mammalian brain, we will better appreciate how the diversity of the cells of the brain are created during development and homeostasis. Given that the brain has over 170 billion cells and that all of these cells come together to give us the ability to think and do, I find its creation to be one of the most fascinating biological concepts.
What motivates you to share your story? I created the Instagram account @science.sam so that I could bring more transparency to the process of science research. My goal was to show that there are so many fascinating aspects of science, including the basic biology behind experiments we do in the lab everyday. I share daily updates of research life and new science news through a personal lens to challenge my audience to change their perceptions of scientists and science for the better. I strive for outreach that is interesting and inclusive to everyone, so I use enough analogies and metaphors for the casual science enthusiast, but just enough details to keep fellow scientists interested, too.
PhD candidate, Neuroscience and Stem Cell Biology, University of Toronto
Instagram: science.sam Twitter: SamanthaZY www.samanthayammine.com
PhD candidate, Neuroscience, Tye Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
What happens to all the beautiful and interesting images generated from failed science experiments? Typically nothing. Scientists use them to help generate better tools and hypotheses; however, because they will never be published, they get stored away on hard drives for no one to see. I started posting some of the pretty images I gathered from my failed experiments (I’m a PhD student studying the neural circuitry underlying motivated behaviors) on Twitter and other social media outlets. Microscopy images were some of my most viewed and shared media and it struck me how effective they were at communicating science content. I wanted to create a home for these images to be seen and appreciated. On a whim of procrastination, Interstellate was born in May 2016.
To start, I made a Twitter account for the project (@interstellate_) and sent over 100 cold emails to neuroscience friends, colleagues, and principal investigators asking for image donations for the project. To be quite honest, I was surprised how enthusiastic and supportive the community was and within six months, I collected over 100 images from ~80 scientists in nine different countries! I tweeted images I collected and started assembling them into an 86-page full gloss magazine. Each page of the magazine features a stunning image generated by scientific research and briefly explains a neuroscience-related concept. For example, the first couple of pages explain the different types of brain cells, how neurons communicate with one another, and how we study them in the laboratory. In October 2016, the digital copy of Interstellate Volume 1 went live (http://pub.lucidpress. com/Interstellate_Volume1/) and with help from our generous corporate sponsors, over 1,000 copies have been printed and distributed for free! I think Interstellate provides a platform to celebrate important but often overlooked steps of research. Interstellate’s goals are science celebration and neuroscience awareness through art.
Interstellate is still a really new initiative, so it will be exciting to see what it evolves into! Right now, I’m working on a second volume (and trying to finish my PhD!), which will debut in November 2017, and expanding the social media and outreach presence (you can follow us on Tumblr and Instagram @interstellate_ ). The whole project is one massive collaborative effort so the future of Interstellate really depends on the network of people who support it. I would love to see Interstellate used as an outreach tool for the public and to recruit the next generation of brain explorers.
Instagram: interstellate_ Twitter: interstellate_ www.caitlinvanderweele.com www.interstellate.com
For several decades, scientists have been studying ways to use the immune system to help fight cancer. Exciting new discoveries have shown that immuno-oncology research can provide potential anticancer therapies to patients who previously had very few treatment options available to them. Immuno-oncology therapies represent a breakthrough in cancer treatment and have transform cancer treatment, and even cure specific cancers.
August 30, 2017 marked the start of an exciting new era in personalised medicine. On that day, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a therapy that genetically alters a patient’s own cells to fight leukaemia. NovartisTM KYMRIAHTM therapy, also known as tisagenlecleucel, is a treatment for paediatric acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), and is now the first FDA-approved chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cell therapy to be commercially available. This historic approval brings awareness to emerging immunotherapies and their potential to transform cancer treatment, and even cure specific cancers. Emily Whitehead, 12, was the first child ever to receive this type of “living drug.” She was one of 63 patients whose cases were used as evidence showing that the treatment had an 83% remission rate at the 90-day mark.
Read the full blog post at thermofisher.com/ctsblog Read the press release and find out how GibcoTM CTSTM products played a role at thermofisher.com/ctspr
GibcoTM Cell Therapy Systems (CTSTM) media and reagents are designed to help you translate your cell therapy to clinical applications. They are manufactured in accordance with cGMP for medical devices (21 CFR Part 820), and backed by extensive safety testing and traceability documentation to facilitate regulatory approval, so you can transition your cell therapy to the clinic with confidence.
Find out more
Harness the power of lentirviral vectors for CAR-T applications—they have a safer integration site profile than the commonly used gamma retroviral vectors to deliver CARs into T cells. Discover the first optimised, high-titer lentiviral production system for suspension culture at any scale.
