It makes me happy that people around the globe find this niche-of-niche website useful to them and their labs and I will keep this ship running as long as I can. However, the projects I do are done out of pocket on a grad student budget, so there’s a limit on the cool stuff I can do.
So, I’m deciding to monetize the website in an as non-obtrusive way as possible to get some cash flow going to fund more cool projects. Read on if you’d like to know how this will be done, in the sake of transparency between me and you as the reader.
A lot of the stuff that I build and knock together have parts sourced primarily from eBay, Amazon, and the scrap bin. This is to be able to do projects on a tight budget, so that resources can be spent elsewhere.
Most of you who decide to build/adapt anything from this site will likely source components from these same sources.
Essentially, on project pages I have on this site there will be links, or a list of links, that will point you to either Amazon items or eBay listings, and if you purchase that item I will get a percentage of either the item price (3-10% from Amazon) or part of the commission fee that eBay takes from every listing (eBay takes 10% of the sold listing price, I get 30-100% of that 10%).
So, I will be getting a small cut of the profit of the items you would buy anyway to build the stuff I write about.
There won’t be in your face ads or anything like that. Every link I put up will be for components I bought with my own money, can verify the quality, and which you can see me use.
Also, it will probably save everyone time tracking down where to get parts, and you may score a sweet deal on eBay!
Where will the money go? Straight back into the blog! Here’s what I’ve got planned:
- Custom synthesized plasmids for enzymes we all can use (very excited about this)
- More equipment teardowns!
- Upgrades for the gene gun, for the pipetting robot
- Odd/expensive reagents for reverse engineering (DIY nickle chromatography media anyone?)
Anyway, that’s the plan. Just to re-iterate, even if I don’t make a penny off any of this, the site will remain.
We wait (impatiently) for the release of new plasmids.
Here is the list of enzymes/proteins that we use a lot in our lab:
– SuperScript III, IV
– Thermostable RNase Inhibitor (SUPERase In RNase Inhibitor, RNasin™ Plus RNase Inhibitor)
– DNase I
– RNase A
– Proteinase K
– Q5 DNA polymerase
– T4 DNA ligase
– BsaI, BbsI, BsmBI
– Bst DNA polymerase Large fragment
– Enterokinase
– Streptavidin
Thanks for the list! Yes, as soon as I have something I can freely distribute, I will let you know. I’m excited!
we use some proteines and enzymes. The list: hot start taq polymerase、Q5、Bst polymerase 、RNasin plus、ssRNA ligase、DNase I、 SuperScript IV
Am looking for reverse transcriptase
Me too, buddy, me too.
With that said I think the supercript II patents have expired, there’s something to the idea 🙂 generic brand RT?
Hi buddy,
Regarding the idea to synthesize genes to purify enzymes, I think it’s better if you could arrange the “group buy” in which you collect many academic users interested in one enzyme, let say Reverse Transcriptase SSII. Then the cost of gene synthesis will be shared by all of the people in the group.
Btw, I am working in the lab which uses SSII and SSIII a lot. We are spending thousands of dollar every month for the enzyme. I would be very happy if you could share me the plasmid to make the enzyme. In return, we could pay you back the cost of gene synthesis or something similar. 🙂
Hope to hear back from you!
Hey buddy! I sent you an email so we can talk shop.
Basically, yes, a reverse transcriptase enzyme freely available to academic users is in the works, I’ve been pretty obsessed with the project actually.
The reason that I’m not immediately releasing it is due to patent issues, I wan’t to be able to do this as legally “clean” as possible so I’ve gotten in touch with lawyers etc. I have all the mutations mapped out to make the equivalent of SS4, but that would likely be too naughty. I will probably release an enzyme that puts it around the SS2-3 range, and shouldn’t infrige on any patents.
can we use SYBR green I nucleic acid stain for qPCR from lifetech
Hey Jam,
Hmm, that’s an excellent question, you can certainly purchase concentrated sybr green dye and give it a try, you’d have to make your own mastermix. Just be careful what type of dye you buy, when I was looking into DIY sybr I found out that there are dozens of specific variants.
With that said, a DIY sybr mix would be awesome, I’ll think about it trying it and posting it
i have tried with evagreen dye it works perfectly but a am getting 2 to 3 late ct values compare to agilent sybr mix . do you know any enhancers to get early ct , i tried with many combinations of buffers but still am not satisfied with cts. Regarding SYBR dye i contacted to lifetech ppl , they says only for gels not for qPCR.I want try with SYBY why because eva dye costly, am not getting resource information where to get.
Hmm, have you tried playing with the concentration of the dye? Maybe more could bump up the fluorescence. Otherwise you would have to optimize your buffer/enzyme mix. Which enzyme are you using?
Ya, i tried with dye and enzyme conc but am getting primer dimer signal when i increased both concs . Am using in-house purified taq. I will try with different buffer combos
Hmm, do qPCR mixes still use taq polymerase? I thought they switched to pfu a while back.
Now am working on probe mix for viral gene detection , am using thermo probe multiplex kit quite expensive . in-house probe mix working fine but sensitivity not upto the mark, i thought problem with taq enzyme but when i used with thermo buffer with in-house taq it works same like thermo, now i understood problem with buffer composition, do you any idea what composition they are using in multiplex PCR.
What is the name of the kit you are using specifically? It will help me try and work it out, I’ll do my best. Are you doing qRT-PCR to detect viral RNA in samples? I do that a fair bit myself! 🙂 I’m impressed you got a home made mix to work!
Yea am doing qRT-PCR to detect viral RNA.Here kit name path-ID-Multiplex One-step-RTPCR kit-4388639
Take a look through this patent, could be interesting, they have composition for a few kits:
https://patents.google.com/patent/US20090137008A1/en?q=step&q=rt+pcr
No, everyone using their own taq mutant versions.
Maybe start up a crowdfunding page and advertise it in biohacker communities? Those are the only guys willing to dig through their pockets 🙂 We are more grant-focused animals who do not like to contribute to a cause you can’t deduce from your grant 😀
A crowdfunding campaign will come at some point, it would be a pretty time intensive project so it may take a while to figure out the details.
I don’t expect people to donate directly (although some do, thank you!!!), the whole point of the website is to help those who are trying to do more with less funding. Donating to some sketchy Canadian does not usually fit well into grant proposals! I am monetizing products that someone following along my instructions would need to buy anyway, and I make a small cut off the sale, which comes out of ebays/Amazons pockets and not the researcher.
And like I said, even if I don’t get a penny I will still keep this ship sailing as long as I can 🙂