We are thrilled to share the story of BeeCode Berlin 🐝 — a citizen science project that’s bringing DNA barcoding out of the lab and into a community library and public forum.

📷 BeeCode Berlin

The first molecular evidence of Arabian leopards previously thought extinct ➡️

So pleased to share Dr Nabil Amor's conservation work across North Africa!

He's changing eDNA sampling in remote locations, and sharing these skills via African BioGenome Project.

🔗 bento.bio/story/decodi...

Are you curious about doing molecular biology and PCR outside a traditional lab, and wondering what it would involve?

If you are, check out our Lab@Home vlog series by Dr. Jenny Shelton – available on Youtube and the Bento Lab Knowledge Hub.

bento.bio/resources/la...

Have you ever made an agarose gel in the field with NO microwave?

We tested 4 different ways of running gels without access to a microwave. See our full results in the link below.

Whether you're in the field, running an outreach event, or making do, there are plenty of clever workarounds.

We are excited to see this new preprint for a molecular detection toolbox for bacterial antibiotic resistance gene markers, with different workflows for 1) well-equipped labs, 2) equipment-poor labs, and 3) portable uses with Bento Lab & lateral flow strips! 👇

If you’re doing DNA barcoding in a fieldwork or resource-limited context and you want to improve phylogenetic resolution at lower cost, here’s a method that allows the sequencing of 3 unlinked regions using long amplicon PCR and @nanoporetech.com MinION for ~€5 a sample.

📷 Timothy Dykes

We’re excited to share a great new proof-of-concept study preprint on portable in-field DNA sequencing to detect pathogens & their antimicrobial resistance from retail meat, lake water & wastewater treatment sludge, using Bento Lab and ONT MinION! 👇

For aquatic eDNA enthusiasts, here’s an interesting and useful review of the last 10 years in the field by Takahashi et al. (2023), covering 407 articles and including 522 single-species primers and 141 metabarcoding primers.

Here's a great article validating the quick and super-easy "Squash PCR" method for microalgae cultures, by Yuan et al. (2024).

This method could be useful to anyone who needs to microscopically verify a small sample and then use the same sample for DNA extraction.

Squash PCR involves👇

For any plant pathologists or fungus enthusiasts doing DNA barcoding, here’s a one-tube rapid DNA extraction method from diseased tissue or tiny immersed fruitbodies that might be useful for DNA-based identification of plant pathogens.👇