Techniques Featured in Addgene's Newsletter | lentivirus retrovirus
March2012:YourTop10LentivectorQuestions AtAddgene,wereceivequestionsdailyfromtrainedmolecularbiologists,alongwithscientiststakingtheirfirstplungeintotheworldofrecombinantDNA.Byfar,thetopicmostinquiredaboutoverthepast8yearshasbeenlentiviralplasmids.Forgoodreason,inthepastdecadelentiviralvectorshaveinmanywayschangedthewayalltypesofresearchersdoscience.HereatAddgene,we’vesentoutover30,000lentivectorssince2004andinFebruaryalonewedistributedover800(!).Weveassembledsomeofourmostcommo...
March 2012: Your Top 10 Lentivector QuestionsAt Addgene, we receive questions daily from trained molecular biologists, along with scientists taking their first plunge into the world of recombinant DNA. By far, the topic most inquired about over the past 8 years has been lentiviral plasmids. For good reason, in the past decade lentiviral vectors have in many ways changed the way all types of researchers do science. Here at Addgene, we’ve sent out over 30,000 lentivectors since 2004 and in February alone we distributed over 800(!). Weve assembled some of our most common FAQs below for your reference.
What is a lentivirus? How is it different than a retrovirus?Lentiviruses are a subtype of retrovirus. The main difference between lentiviruses and standard retroviruses from an experimental standpoint is lentiviruses are capable of infecting non-dividing and actively dividing cell types, whereas standard retrovir...