Would love to hear what others are using and why

[morrowinemonet]

Hey everyone, I’ve been working on a few gene expression assays recently and it got me thinking—what molecular biology kit brands do you actually trust? I’ve tried a couple, but the results have been… inconsistent to say the least. Sometimes the reagents degrade too quickly, other times I get poor amplification. I’m especially curious about kits for DNA extraction and PCR. Would love to hear what others are using and why.

 

[eneria12]

Oh, I’ve been there! Especially with PCR kits—some brands look great on paper but turn out completely unreliable in practice. Personally, I’ve had consistently good results with kits from Takara and NEB. Takara’s PCR master mixes are robust even with tricky templates, and NEB is great for restriction enzymes too. But lately, I’ve started sourcing most of my reagents through Gentaur because they stock multiple brands and it's easier to compare products side by side. They also carry lesser-known European brands that are surprisingly solid. For example, I tried a dna definition kit from EURx that performed just as well as Qiagen’s, but cost way less. Plus, delivery’s been reliable so far. Curious what others are using, especially outside of the big names.

 

[morrowinemonet]

I’ve mostly used Qiagen out of habit, but now I’m realizing there are probably better options I’ve overlooked. Interested to try Gentaur for sourcing too—didn’t know they offered so many brands in one place.