Biology by Design: Applying Gigabases of DNA to Bioengineering

This technical video provides an overview of the methodologies, tools, and reagents used to generate multicellular tumor spheroids. Specifically, this video discusses the benefits of Cultrex® extracellular matrices for spheroid formation and analysis. Technical tips are provided for using colorimetric and fluorometric assays to evaluate cell proliferation and invasion of spheroids. This protocol video was originally recorded by Dr. Gabriel Benton at Trevigen, Inc. The Trevigen portfolio, including tools for creating 3-D and spheroid cultures, is now a part of R&D Systems, a Bio-Techne brand.

The therapeutic antibody market has reached a fever pitch of enthusiasm, in no small part due to successes of recent drug approvals for a host of disorders such as psoriasis, multiple sclerosis, C. difficile infections, and cancer.

DNA assembly is commonly performed in the build step of the design-build-test-learn cycle at the core of synthetic biology. In many assembly workflows, DNA is assembled into gene fragments, which are then assembled into larger constructs, often plasmids.

Multicellular organisms and dynamic biological processes consist of a complex and coordinated interplay of multiple individual cells. Until recently, most molecular studies have relied on bulk analysis, combining all cells into a single average readout. In recent years, single-cell RNA sequencing technologies have enabled researchers to study development and disease at the level of individual cells, revealing cell-to-cell gene expression differences that were obscured with bulk or low throughput methods.