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Oligo Giveaway Results are in!
Last week our 10th Anniversary Free Month of Oligos Giveaway contest ended with the selection of winner Allan Kelleher from the University of California San Diego. Our contest was exclusive to our Facebook friends and fans but we announced the giveaway and updated the status of the contest via our other social networking channels. I got the opportunity to meet with Alan this last week at UCSD’s Bonner Hall where he is hard at work in molecular biology research.
We gave him a certificate to confirm his win and took a few photos. He was a really nice guy and we are happy that our $1600 worth of free oligos will assist him in his experiments. I will post the pictures on our social sites soon.
I was really eager to promote this contest. At Allele we wanted to do something that marked our ten years in business in an impressive way while at the same time abiding by our philosophy of encouraging the advancement of research. Oligos were an organic choice as they were our first commercial product on top of being a universally useful tool in the industry, which is evident in their use by medical researchers, molecular biologists, physicists, oceanographers; the list goes on.
To hold the contest exclusive to our Allele on Facebook friend/fan base was another organic choice as most of our contacts on this format are bench researchers. Some are just fans that are interested in our weekly product promotions and new product announcements. However, most of our Allele on Facebook contacts are friends. This allows us to see their bio questions. In frustration they will post, “Has anyone had experience with this type of ligation…?” Facebook gives our friends the opportunity to get help from top scientists for free and often during their workday for the fastest access to information available.
For all the benefits available to you, join Allele’s friends on Facebook today and be the first to know about everything Allele Biotech has to offer!
How We Give Back in 2010
This year has started off great for Allele. Every week our shipping volume is increasing, we have an arsenal of new products in the pipeline, we are the sole provider of oligos on the University of California San Diego’s central online purchasing site, and every day we are taking even more action to cut the waste and increase productivity in order to give our customers the very best at a reasonable cost. Our company is maturing nicely in its 10th year!
Lately we have really been focusing on giving back to our customers who I, on a daily basis, am impressed with. Most of all, I am impressed with how good of a relationship we have. I have several customers who I am on the phone with regularly and genuinely glad to hear from. We have fun with our friends on facebook, giving advice on molecular biology techniques and even swapping recipes.
So far this year we have designed three new ways to reward our customers:
There is our big 10 Year Anniversay Oligo Giveaway where we will give away a free month of oligos to one facebook friend or fan. DNA and RNA oligos were Allele’s very first product and we knew we wanted to have a big prize to reward to celebrate not only 10 years in business but also surviving through what is the worst economic time in decades. It only made sense that the giveaway should be oligos. Most importantly, this is also where our longest customer relationships exist; within our oligo customer base. Personally, I cannot wait for the winner to be announced. I am probably more excited about it than most of the contestants!
This last January we also launched our Allele Biotech Rewards Program designed by our Business Development Manager Eugene Pahk. We want to make it more affordable for all Allele customers to purchase Allele Biotech Products (we have over 1000). Allele Rewards are easy to earn and more importantly, easy to redeem. We do not make it complicated, rewards do not expire, and they can be used on a number of common molecular biology research tools. Just another way to give back to the people who keep us in business and support our research.
Our latest tribute to our patrons is especially designed for all the younger, tech savvy (and usually desperately in need of money) grad students! We will award $100 cash to anyone who submits an Allele product or service relevant picture to us for use on our homepage. We are tired of the current photos we have now and instead of just purchasing some (which we could do for a really low cost) we decided to get the force of our creative and intelligent supporters to not only have some fun but to get a different perspective on what the Allele brand means to people.
On top of the new programs and promotions, every week we make a promise to have one item or service on sale; sometimes at the direct behest of the researchers themselves. Our weekly promotions are announced via our social networking sites (facebook, twitter, Linkedin, myspace, and our Allele Biotech Blog). We want to have as many avenues as possible for customers to be involved with Allele Biotech so we can succeed in this business for decades to come while giving back to our customers the entire way.
Become a friend, fan, follower, contact, or bookmark our blog site today to get the most of what we give!
Submit Your Pictures and Enter to Win $100 in Cash
Allele Biotech is holding another fun contest to give back to our loyal supporters and everyone has the chance to win $100 in cash! We are looking for interesting and relevant pictures, illustrations, and computer generated art that pertains to any Allele Biotech Product or service to replace the flashes on our homepage. If it is chosen to be used we will give you $100 cash!
Check out our technical data sheets, read our past blogs, and even use your own lab experience and impressions with Allele Biotech Products to come up with your entry. There are over 1000 products to choose from so everyone should have lots of inspiration!
All you have to do to enter is submit your picture to our facebook inbox! The picture has to be of your own creation and/or one to which you own exclusive rights. Response time and prizes will take about a week.
Let your creative juices flow and you could get $100 in return. Your picture could be funny, serious, or even super nerdy!
Used to promote our Sapphire(TM) Baculovirus Expression Service
All photos, illustrations, and computer generated graphics (aka. “the picture”) submitted must be lawfully owned by entrants who submitted them. Pictures that are not chosen will not be used in any way by Allele Biotech. Winners may collect their prize via cash, check, or a one-time Allele credit of $100 good toward any Allele Biotech purchase. Allele Biotech has full rights to pictures selected for use in Allele advertising and winners must forfeit any future rights to the picture. Contest to run indefinitely and to be terminated at any time.
New Product for 1-18-10 to 1-24-10 High Throughput DNA Oligos!
Need a plate of high quality oligos fast and for a great price? Allele’s newest product can help…
Introducing High Throughput DNA Oligos!
Anywhere from 48 – 96 desalt oligos per plate
Oligos 20 – 50 bases long
Available in two synthesis scales:
25 nmol scale only 13 cents per base
50 nmol scale only 17 cents per base
Every oligo is strictly controlled for quality:
Oligo quality is verified using MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry or Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry.
Shipped or hand delivered in 5 days!
Oligos can be provided normalized at a specific concentration with fixed or variable volumes. Concentration options depend on the oligo length, purification, and scale of synthesis being ordered.
No minimum number of plates per order required!
To order, simply email your oligo sequences and names, indicate 25 nmol or 50 nmol, concentration preference in excel or notepad format to oligo@allelebiotech.com A template will be posted online here soon, please check back.
Allele…Continuing to introduce cost efficiency to research!
10 Ways to Stay Green in the Lab in 2010
It is hard to do in this business. Numerous consumables, single-use everything to maintain experiment integrity, and constantly ordering reagents with all that packaging! It is a never ending stream of materials that go into experiments dealing with such small molecules. Hope is not lost- there are a few cheap and easy things we as bench scientists can do to help make our labs a little greener.
1 Always recycle- It is mandatory now for most companies and organizations to recycle (especially in California) if they produce more than 1 dumpster full of trash per week. You can do your part in the lab by always putting non-toxic/hazardous recyclables in the recycle bin! Even here in the Allele labs I often find Kimwipe boxes, glove boxes, and even plastic drinking water bottles in the trash and have to fish them out. Always recycling is an easy and, best of all, free thing to do to make your labs more earth friendly.
2 There’s no place like the correct waste receptacle- Every type of waste has its place. Be nice to the earth by putting biohazard in the biohazard, sharps in the sharps, organic solvent waste in the organic solvent waste drum etc.
3 Shut it down!- Always turn off your computer and unused equipment. You can save about $250 per computer per year just by shutting it down every night. Turning off other equipment like the UVP is easy to forget too. Just powering off that at night saves energy and extends the life of the bulb which also saves your lab some cash.
4 Look for ethidium bromide alternatives- This is a work in progress. With all the controversies regarding SYBR and DAPI in their function and mutagenic qualities it seems that there is a call for development of a legitimately safe method to visualize DNA and RNA. Allele is on the case and hopes to have something in the pipeline soon!
5 Swap your boxes- Styrofoam is a necessary evil in the lab. It is the easiest way to transport your temperature sensitive reagents and diagnostics; it is lightweight so it does not add too much to your shipping charges. The bad news is (until better recycling is implemented) that one styrofoam box will be here forever! If you have no occasion to reuse your styrofoam within your own institution there is good news. There are companies out there who will buy your used styrofoam boxes, like Allele with its Box Swap Program, so at the very least that styrofoam box can be used a few more times, eliminating the need to buy it brand new and decreasing demand for this material. If you cannot take advantage of our program then set one up for your own company!
6 Only use dry ice when you have to- If your shipment only requires -20 degrees C for a single day transit time blue ice will work! I have seen it more than I can say when we get a robust reagent sent to us in dry ice with priority shipping. Within the US, priority shipping usually means a transit time about 20 hrs. This last time I saw a small vial in the box which had ~7 lbs of dry ice. This much dry ice will keep a 2lb object frozen for about 24 hrs and someone used it to ship a 10g vial that only needed to be stored at -20 deg C for about 20 hrs! If they had used a 12oz blue ice pack they would have saved on shipping and packaging and we would have been able to reuse the pack, furthering our green endeavors.
7 Close the sash!- This is another great and inexpensive way to save the environment and some money. Closing the hood sash, incubator doors, and refrigerators adds up; constantly leaving them open add up too!
8 Back that thing up!- Since we are lab folk we do not have as many crazy office chain emails going around but I checked and yesterday I sent out 17 emails and received a few more than that! Days like that I shudder to think that there are people out there who receive more than I do on a daily basis and print out every single one for their “records”. This is madness. Please remember to not print emails unless you really need a hard copy. It’s just as easy to save it in a computer file and back your file up.
9 Talk about it- Those motivational types tell you to talk about your goals to others as a means of supporting and motivating yourself to accomplish said goals. Talk to your lab mates and ask them things they can think of to green up your lab. Do not feel weird about seeming “nerdy” by supporting the environment. Chances are, if you work in a lab everyone thinks you are a big nerd already!
10 Network green- I do not like business cards. They are usually made of paper, come in obscene quantities, and do not get recycled. If your title changes or you switch companies you have to go a buy thousands more to update your info. Additionally, they are only for work; there is no social aspect to them and they are too small to really put all your contact info on. Good news is you can go green in networking with Pokens! Pokens are these amazing little animal and people shaped devices that store all your contact info including your company’s website, your email, your social networking pages (i.e. facebook, linkedin, etc.), phone numbers, and whatever else you want. When someone else has a Poken you can “high-four” them and your contact info is swapped. Your Poken can hold many profiles and when it gets full you can load them onto your address book on your computer. There is an upgraded model specifically for business that is not animal shaped and is a zip drive as well. They are relatively new to America and I am one of the many campaigning for them to revolutionize the business card industry! I have two- one for work and one for play.
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