As part of the two-day celebration for our Passion in Science Awards, award winners were guided through bacterial agar art creation! NEB Principal Scientist Mehmet Berkmen is always excited to share his love for microbes of all colors and shapes 🧫

Our final awardee presenter is Rojelio Mejia, M.D., who won a Passion in Science Humanitarian Duty Award for the My Poverty and Parasite Nexus project, which he founded to connect parasites, poverty and more through science and advocacy.

Can you imagine what it would be like to learn about chemical concepts through textile art practices? Passion in Science Arts and Creativity Award winner Anne-Frances Miller has developed courses that use natural dye to support hands-on projects!

Presenting for the Passion in Science Awards, Scientific Mentorship and Advocacy Awardee Richard O'Rorke highlights The DNA Drive project and the impact of citizen science 🔬

Our first Passion in Science Awardee presentation of the day! Environmental Stewardship Award Winner Chukwudi Ikegwu spotlights his conservation work in Nigeria using eDNA and bioacoustics for non-invasive amphibian biodiversity monitoring 🐸

RNA-seq speed without compromise! Learn how NEBNext UltraExpress RNA can be applied to samples down to 1ng in our new technical note, "Application of NEBNext UltraExpress RNA to low-input RNA samples" https://nebiolabs.com/4xZp3pQ

New Student Starter Pack requests are now open! First-year graduate students and first-year post-docs can get the jumpstart they need for the lab with our starter pack, containing technical references, lab supplies, and NEB swag. Learn more and see T&Cs: https://nebiolabs.com/46Qrlg2

Today's the day! Stock up on your lab reagents and support the Monarch butterflies with US catalog sales for our Monarch Day. Learn more at www.neb.com 🦋

Earlier this month, NEB hosted the 2026 Boston Phage Symposium on our Ipswich campus! We are thrilled to have supported a shared interest in phage research and great talks from four labs from MIT and @harvard.edu !

END nucleases, defense systems within diverse bacteria that target bacteriophages with hypermodified DNA, are identified in a Nature Microbiology study by NEB researchers and collaborators. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-026-02407-2

END nucleases are antiphage defence systems targeting multiple phages with modified genomes - Nature Microbiology

The END nuclease targets eight phage families with at least ten different known DNA modifications, but not unmodified DNA. Its specificity is dictated by the C-terminal iEndoIII domain. To combat END,...

nature.com

In our latest podcast (https://nebiolabs.com/4yJC1c3), microbiologist and virologist Dr. Paul Turner, from Yale School of Medicine, joins us to explain how bacteriophage can be used to treat and kill bacterial infections, and what the future of this technology looks like.

Our Passion in Science Award winners from around the world have been notified! We're excited to share the full list of awardees: https://nebiolabs.com/4xYpdP5

Less than two weeks left until NEB's Monarch Day! Learn more about Monarch Day and how US catalog sales can help support Monarch butterflies at www.neb.com

In our latest blog, see how RNase 4 can be used to digest long mRNA molecules into oligonucleotide fragments amenable to analysis by LC-MS, capillary electrophoresis, or denaturing gel-based methods - enabling detailed assessment of mRNA therapeutic safety & content. https://nebiolabs.com/3T7Y2lS

RNase 4 Supports Precise Characterization of mRNA 5 Prime Cap Structures

Analytic tools to characterize complex messenger RNA (mRNA) sequences are crucial for mRNA-based therapeutics and vaccines

nebiolabs.com

Considering lyophilized reagents? See an example in Microbiology Spectrum of how they can be used in a rapid & low-cost proof-of-concept workflow for HIV-1 subtype B & HCV genotype 1a molecular detection from blood samples by Public Health Agency of Canada researchers: https://nebiolabs.com/4y1VtB4

Rapid, low-cost, and portable molecular detection of HIV-1 subtype B and HCV 1a directly from blood | Microbiology Spectrum

Ongoing changes in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) epidemiology highlight the need for more adaptable and accessible diagnostic tools. In this study, we developed a fast, low-cost test that detects HIV-1 and HCV from a sma...

journals.asm.org

In a Microbial Genomics paper (https://nebiolabs.com/4AaYZdJ), University of Copenhagen, NEB, and University College Cork scientists describe the quite large variation in genome composition for Pseudolactococcus laudensis strains from different habitats.

Comparative genomics and methylome profiling of Pseudolactococcus laudensis reveal signatures of niche adaptation and strain-level variation in mobile genetic elements and phage defence

Pseudolactococcus laudensis (formerly named Lactococcus laudensis) is an emerging lactic acid bacterium first isolated from raw milk in 2015 and subsequently detected in vegetables and dairy mesophili...

microbiologyresearch.org

Happy Labor Day! In honor of the holiday and in celebration of the many achievements American workers have contributed to the US, NEB is closed today, Sept. 7.

NEB scientists showcase M. paludis Argonaute (Mpa Ago) as a programmable RNA "restriction enzyme" that can cleave mRNAs at precise, user-defined sites without the sequence constraints of CRISPR-Cas. https://www.cell.com/molecular-therapy-family/nucleic-acids/fulltext/S2162-2531(26)00154-X

The biochemical origin and precise chemical structure of 5-arabinosylcytosine, a cytosine DNA hypermodification, is revealed in a @narjournal.bsky.social publication by NEB, National Research Council Canada, and Brock University scientists: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42391045/

Biosynthesis of glycosylated 5-hydroxycytosine in the DNA of diverse viruses - PubMed

Characterizing viral strategies for circumventing cellular defenses is critical to understanding the biology and therapeutic application of bacteriophages as antimicrobials. Many bacteriophages synthesize complex modifications (i.e. hypermodifications) ...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Learn about exciting R&D trends in peptide therapeutics, including what makes custom mRNA display libraries so powerful, in this Q&A with the founders of PeptiFinder Biotech: https://nebiolabs.com/4gy4Y3t

Highly Efficient Peptide Binder Discovery Using mRNA Display

In this Q&A, PeptiFinder Biotech scientists share how mRNA display yields the most potent peptide binder hits, where they see the field going, and what could expand the chemical space accessible to mR...

nebiolabs.com

In a collaboration between Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle University, NEB and other labs, a Nucleic Acids Research paper shows a subcomplex of three BREX proteins, demonstrating that BrxC is a DNA-binding ATPase that can switch between multimer forms. https://nebiolabs.com/4girjBL

Multiple forms of protein–protein and DNA binding are exhibited by BrxC from the BREX phage restriction system

Abstract. Bacteriophage exclusion (BREX) defense systems restrict phage infection via inhibition of phage DNA replication, while also modifying and protect

nebiolabs.com

Bioinformatic searches identified a new toxin-antitoxin system in M. tuberculosis that researchers from Universite de Toulouse, Durham University, NIH, and NEB have named RelSI. When released, the toxin cleaves the 16S rRNA and removes the anti-Shine-Dalgarno region. https://nebiolabs.com/45DVkHu

Ribosomal RNA cleavage by the previously unidentified RelS–RelI toxin–antitoxin system controls growth of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Abstract. Toxin–antitoxin (TA) systems use diverse strategies to control bacterial growth and represent attractive therapeutic targets to fight pathogens.

nebiolabs.com

Our Molecular Biology Summer Workshop, hosted at Quinnipiac University, took place at the end of July! Read more about the workshop and view photo highlights from the 2-week intensive in Quinnipiac Today: https://nebiolabs.com/4qnPjIx

Quinnipiac hosts New England Biolabs® hands-on molecular biology intensive

today.qu.edu

SRM University-AP, CSIR-IICB, Jadavpur University, University of South Florida, and NEB researchers present an end-to-end framework to ID cell-specific protein markers commonly regulated across mild-moderate AD, early-stage PD & MS in peripheral blood mononuclear cells. https://nebiolabs.com/4qq8y47

In an ACS Synthetic Biology paper, NEB scientists present a microfluidic workflow that couples reconstituted in vitro transcription–translation with ultrahigh-throughput droplet screening to directly link genotype and phenotype within complex, heterogeneous DNA pools: https://nebiolabs.com/4fSeqj2

Development of a Microdroplet-Based Functional Genomic Screening Pipeline by Combination of DNA Nanoflowers and PURExpress Cell-Free Expression

Abstract. We present a microfluidic workflow that couples reconstituted in vitro transcription–translation (IVTT) with ultrahigh-throughput droplet screeni

nebiolabs.com

NEBNext EM-seq v2 has a shorter, more streamlined workflow for ≤100 ng, making it the fastest (<4.5 hrs), broadest input range, and most reliable enzymatic methylation solution available. https://nebiolabs.com/4wXbBmO

Our webinar on mRNA characterization is tomorrow! Don't forget to learn more and register at https://nebiolabs.com/4fK9pZH

Don't miss your chance to submit a nature-themed photo for our 2027 calendar! 🐞 If selected, you'll receive $500 in NEB product credit or $500 to donate to a charity of your choice! Learn more about terms & conditions and submit your photography by Sept. 15 at https://nebiolabs.com/3TKtd6C

Our next webinar on August 12 at 1 pm EDT will showcase two complementary approaches for mRNA characterization! Learn more and register at https://nebiolabs.com/4fK9pZH

The @genesinspace.bsky.social competition winners have been selected! Congratulations to Bronx High School of Science juniors Serena Tsao & Chloe Comisarow. We're excited to work with them and the Genes in Space team to finalize their experiment for launch to the ISS! https://nebiolabs.com/4fOTbNE