These cells could save over two hours compared to traditional transformation methods, while exceeding efficiency claims of established lines: simply thaw, add DNA, mix, and plate immediately
Real Biotech has announced the worldwide launch of its HIT Competent Cell, a new generation non-heat shock transforming E coli cell, following successful customer beta testing at various sites in the Asia-Pacific region.
"Competent cell technology has seen little change over the last 30 years, yet they are a core part of molecular biology research.
"We saw a chance to bring major new innovations to this area.
"A combination of proprietary technologies involved in HIT cells have been developed in our labs over the last two years," explained Fionn Quinlan, international sales manager at Real Biotech Corp.
"In Korea and Taiwan, HIT cells have already become the number one choice for life scientists general and high efficiency cloning needs.
"These cells save over two hours compared to traditional transformation methods, while exceeding efficiency claims of established competitors.
"The customer simply thaws the cells, adds DNA, mixes and plates immediately," claimed Quinlan.
Real Biotech provides all popular cell formats from regular to high efficiency.
According to Quinlan, the cells' convenience and reliability are the reason the cells have taken the number one market spot since their recent introduction in Korea.
HIT cells will soon launch in Japan followed by various European countries and North America in the next few months.
"The other area we have focused on is quality control, an area where many Taiwanese companies have tended to cut corners in the past.
"Unfortunately for us, such companies would simply place a label on their products that stated 'QC passed' and ship it to the customer.
"This caused us serious difficulty when trying to penetrate the international life science market.
"We decided the only way to counter this unfair perception of our products was to exceed our partners' and customers' quality expectations in every way," said Quinlan.
As an example, competent cells often lose efficiency in transit due to their extreme sensitivity to temperature variation.
To counter this, Real Biotech installed a complete -70C electronic cell monitoring system, allowing for a consistent cool environment from manufacture to shipping and right through to the scientist's benchtop.
"To do this we have become the most expert dry ice shippers in Asia.
"We've even had to educate the major courier companies in the whole process.
"We can guarantee with certainty that every shipment will arrive to the customer in perfect condition, worldwide.
"The improved efficiency is obvious to any scientist using our HIT cells" explained Quinlan.
