🚨 New Publication Alert!

Vibrio natriegens has been gaining attention as a fast-growing alternative to Escherichia coli in molecular and synthetic biology. However, the increasing use of both organisms in labs raises a crucial challenge: how do we rapidly detect and avoid cross-contamination that can compromise weeks of work?
In a recent study by Lara Möller (iBB member & student at Bremen University of Applied Sciences), a rapid in-lab toolbox was developed to discriminate between V. natriegens Vmax and common E. coli K-12 strains, using minimal equipment.

🔬 The toolbox combines:
– A commercial oxidase test
– Agar culture observations
– A dual-marker PCR targeting ccoN (Vibrio) and lacZ (E. coli)

Tested against E. coli DH5α, V. natriegens Vmax, and an unknown contaminant, the approach successfully and quickly distinguished between them, offering a simple safeguard for lab integrity.
This work, supported by José Santos and supervised by Ana Rita Santos and Miguel Prazeres, has just been published in the Journal of Microbiological Methods.

 👉 Read the paper here: https://lnkd.in/drJ2RKqV

Funded by the European Union under the project DIG4BIO – Digitalization of Biomanufacturing of Plasmids for the Development of Advanced Therapy Modalities (HORIZON-WIDERA-2023-ACCESS-02-0-101159993).

#Microbiology #SyntheticBiology #MolecularBiology #Research #Publication #VibrioNatriegens #Ecoli #DIG4BIO