New England Biolabs Reports Significant Process Improvements Using IDT’s gBlocks™

The latest issue of Integrated DNA Technologies’ (IDT’s) DECODED newsletter highlights how New England Biolabs (NEB) researchers were able to expedite the cloning of a 2.1 kb gene into a linearized pET21-a bacterial expression vector using 5 gBlocks™ Gene Fragments that spanned the entire 2.1 kb sequence. Cloning, sequencing, and characterization of protein activity took less than 4 days, shorter than necessary for a third party to synthesize the complete gene and provide a finished construct.

Peichung Hsieh, Application Scientist at New England Biolabs, Inc. commented “The use of gBlocks Gene Fragments was simple and cost-effective, saved time, and resulted in fewer errors than the assembly of DNA from single-stranded synthetic oligonucleotides. These benefits ensure that Gibson Assembly cloning using gBlocks Gene Fragments will be a method we will continue to work with in the future”.

gBlocks Gene Fragments are designed to reduce the time, error rate, and costs associated with producing single gene constructs or multiple genes within metabolic pathways. Used in conjunction with the recently introduced NEB Gibson Assembly™ Master Mix, NEB reduced both the hands-on time and the total turnaround time of some of their cloning workflows.