Top 10 blog posts of 2016

As we get closer to wrapping up 2016, we are taking a look back at our top 10 posts. We produced 27 posts this year on the latest scientific studies, tips and tricks to help you succeed in the lab, as well as interesting topics such as autophagy in neurodegeneration and macrophages in cancer. Here are the ones you liked the most. Feel free to dive in again to your favorite posts, share with a friend and leave a comment.

We look forward to producing even more tantalizing posts for 2017, and this time, you’ll be able to subscribe to the blog so that you won’t miss out on a post you might be interested in. Thank you for reading, sharing and liking our posts this year, and Happy Holidays!

1.

Zika virus — a new viral threat for 2016?…

This was the first blog post for 2016, which focused on the history, biology and epidemiology of the then fairly unknown Zika virus. We will be doing an update on this post highlighting the latest studies on the Zika virus for January 2017. Stay tuned.

2.

The road to antibody validation standards

Fresh from the preeminent antibody validation meetings held in September at the University of Bath, UK and the ASILOMAR grounds CA, USA, this blog post highlights the discussions within the scientific community on antibody validation.

3.

The oldest known naturally occurring cancer is transmitted between dogs

Canine transmissible venereal tumor represents a biological curiosity of significant magnitude. In this post we explored the history of this transmissible cancer and discuss recent studies on understanding its biology.

4.

The 2016 Nobel Prize Winning cellular mechanism, autophagy, and neurodegeneration

On October 3, 2016, Professor Yoshinori Ohsumi won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his discoveries of the mechanisms underlying autophagy. This blog post takes a look at how scientists are exploiting this fascinating biological phenomenon as a therapeutic strategy for neurodegenerative diseases.

5.

5 easy steps to successful flow cytometry

To help you master the scientific art that is flow cytometry, we simplified the technique in 5 easy steps to help you get the best results the first time, and every time.

6.

Deciding which ELISA technique is right for you

This blog post focused on helping you with your ELISA experiment. We provided an overview of the different types of ELISAs, their advantages and disadvantages, as well as what to consider before choosing an ELISA technique.

7.

Cell death by apoptosis – the journey of a single cell from health to death

Apoptosis is a fundamental biological process, and its dysregulation can lead to cancer. To help you in measuring apoptosis in your research, this post focused on the mechanisms and triggers that lead to cell death by apoptosis and how to measure this process in your research.

8.

You GATA get it right – GATA transcription factors and their role in cancer diagnosis and prognosis

Identifying biomarkers for cancer detection and diagnosis is of major importance to scientists and clinicians. This blog post highlights the GATA family of transcription factors is emerging as key players in this critical area of research.

9.

When ubiquitination goes bad, knock it out for effective cancer therapy

In the past two decades, our knowledge on the role of ubiquitin molecules in protein modification and cancer significantly increased. This blog post describes the process of ubiquitination and highlights the “druggable” ubiquitination molecules under consideration in clinical research.

10.

Inducing macrophages that work against rather than for cancer

Within the immune response to cancer, macrophages present both a potential problem, and a potential solution. This post describes how scientists are converting macrophages into an asset for cancer therapy.