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Viral Vectors 101: Virus safety

addgene Blog

Viruses have become a regular part of basic biological research as well as clinical therapy. These biological tools are useful because they ’ re derived from viruses that can infect people, cells, and animals. Some of these viruses are completely inert, but others can cause diseases. Nervous about handling viruses? That ’ s okay!

Virus 98
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Production of Virus in Insect Versus Mammalian Cells

addgene Blog

Pre-made viruses have become increasingly accessible and are useful for saving time and avoiding potentially costly set-ups. However, there are many cases where the specific viral particles you need are not available, or the cost of custom viruses are too high for your budget. In those cases, you’ll need to produce your viruses in-house.

Virus 98
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Viral Vectors 101: Types of viruses

addgene Blog

Here we will discuss the four most commonly used lab viruses: gamma-retrovirus, lentivirus, adenovirus, and adeno-associated virus. There are a lot of viruses out there – most of which we would all like to steer clear of!

Virus 96
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Viral Vectors 101: What is a Virus (and a Viral Vector)?

addgene Blog

Viruses are simple – a genome packaged in a protein shell (Taylor, 2014). They’re so simple that we can’t even decide if they’re alive or not. Yet these simple, small particles have quite the outsized impact – and not just on the disease front.

Virus 98
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Viral Vectors 101: Voltage Indicators

addgene Blog

In this blog we will review how these indicators work, their general applications, and why viruses are essential to their use as biological tools. Cellular activities like action potentials, muscle contractions, and the control of voltage gated ion channels all depend on transmitting and sensing electrical potential.

Virus 105
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Viral Vectors 101: Biosensors

addgene Blog

In this blog we will review the basics of biosensors and how to use viruses to set up these systems. Or maybe it’s a biosensor?! You can do more than just ‘sense’ biological compounds and reactions; you can quantify them with biosensors!

Virus 98
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Viral Vectors 101: Systemic Capsids

addgene Blog

The blood-brain-barrier (BBB) exists to prevent substances in the blood, like proteins and viruses, from crossing into the brain. While helpful from a biological standpoint, it makes delivering AAVs to the brain difficult.

Virus 132