Research and Development (R&D)
Overview
The R&D team comprises a multinational group of 3 Ph.D. scientists, 3 process engineers, 2 lab officers and an M.Sc Bioinformatician. Together, this team takes care of both internal and external requests, including:
(i) Continual enhancement of existing Production processes (Buffers, Sanger sequencing and Oligonucleotide synthesis)
(ii) Sample preparation prior to Next Generation Sequencing
(iii) Customized molecular biology research.
(iv) Development of new molecular biology products and services.
To facilitate the work of the R&D team, the company has invested in dedicated infrastructure, and sets aside a significant amount of its resources for this purpose. The R&D lab contains all that is needed for most molecular biology procedures, with equipment such as -200C and -800C freezers, cryogenics, a laminar flow hood, benchtop and personal refrigerated centrifuges, vertical and horizontal electrophoresis gel tanks and associated documentation systems, gradient-enabled thermal cyclers, a refrigerated orbital shaking incubator, chilling/heating/shaking thermoblocks, a Covaris S2 focused acoustic ultrasonicator, and an Agilent 2100 Bioanalyzer. We use industry-leading reagents and kits from recognized brands such as Qiagen, Invitrogen, Stratgene, Fermentas, Sigma, Promega, NEB, and of course our own in-house 1st BASE buffers and biochemicals.
Be it addressing your requirements, providing technical know-how or improving our processes, everyone at 1st BASE is dedicated to ensuring your satisfaction. Your Research is Our Business, let us be your trusted partner in your research journey.
Areas of Focus
Product and Process Improvements
Our Process Engineers are specialists who examine ongoing processes in their respective areas of expertise, suggest improvements in the form of procedural modifications and/or the incorporation of the latest products and technology. They then test these changes to ensure their proper functionality prior to implementing them into new Standard Operating Procedures.
All modifications are aimed at increasing efficiency and cost-effectiveness, while minimizing the numbers of different steps in each particular workflow. To give examples of the work they do, several years ago 1st BASE Singapore decided to cease the use of Ethidium Bromide in the laboratory, and switched to safe fluorescent stains. The benefits of doing so were multifold: increased worker safety, reduced environmental toxicity and enhanced sensitivity as well as elimination of ultraviolet-induced DNA damage to customer samples.
Currently, our Process Engineers and Production Teams are in the midst of further automating the Sanger sequencing workflow by integrating a new liquid handling robot into the pipeline. When fully implemented, this should see improvements in sample processing, the minimization of human intervention, and additional cost reductions that will translate to savings for customers.
In the area of Oligonucleotide Synthesis, our Process Engineer is focused on further enhancing the efficiency of long oligo synthesis, specifically by increasing the percentage of mutation-free, full-length oligos that can be generated prior to purification. He is currently studying the spectrum of mutations that may appear as a function of oligo length and innate sequence, to identify potentially problematic oligos.
The R&D team is also tasked with the development of new molecular biology products and services. The range of customised molecular biology services that we offer is limited only by the experience of our team of scientists, and this spans a wealth of experience in both industry and academia.
Research Capabilities
The range of customized molecular biology services that we offer is limited only by the experience of our team of scientists, and this spans a wealth of experience in both industry and academia, including DNA and RNA extraction, recombinant protein expression, site directed mutagenesis, cDNA library construction, species identification (bar-coding), gene synthesis and the PCR and sequencing of both short and long targets across multiple samples, both human and otherwise. See also CRS page for more details.
Please contact us to discuss your needs - we have handled requests as small as a single plasmid maxiprep, to multisample ChIP-Seq and small RNA preparation and sequencing. We also offer time-based access to our Bioanalyzer and our Covaris S2 unit for small-scale, size-targeted DNA or RNA shearing and general sample disruption.
If you have suggestions for products you’d like to see introduced, or services you might be interested in outsourcing to us, why not drop us a line?
Your comments and suggestions are always taken seriously, and if you leave your contact details, the appropriate personnel will get back to you for further discussions after reviewing your request. |
