March Round-up: Snake Genomics in a Van, Biotech Education, and Building a Bird Sexing Business bento.bio/blog/2026/03/31/sn…

From poultry enthusiast to bird-sexing lab owner! 🐣🧬 Brittney Knight started out with no PCR experience, learned how to sex birds using Bento Lab, and now runs her own successful bird sexing laboratory. We’re very excited to share her story and how she got started. Read all about her inspiring journey here 👇 bento.bio/story/solving-the-…

Curious how PCR can help students study insect prey & parasites in the field? Researchers recently shared their 1-day Bento Lab protocol: 🕷️ Adaptable workflow for ecology studies 🕷️ Field-ready, practical steps 🕷️ Tested in 2023/24 & 2024/25 courses 🔗 slack.protocols.io:8443/view…

February Round-up: Leopard Detection, Malaria Surveillance, New Teaching Lab, and more bento.bio/blog/2026/02/28/le…

In-situ DNA sequencing in one of the world’s most remote caves? In Venezuela’s Imawarí Yeutá, researchers built a field lab with Bento Lab + ONT MinION. ⭐Complete onsite workflow ⭐Offline analysis ⭐Insights into microbes & cave formation 🔗 Read: doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-20…

Pathogen + AMR monitoring directly from meat, lake water & sludge? This proof-of-concept field study used Bento Lab: ⭐ DNA prep comparable to lab workflows ⭐ Pathogens detected in food & water ⭐ Resistance genes identified 🔗 Read summary + study: bento.bio/blog/2024/12/29/ra…

New study tracks a deadly chimpanzee pathogen in the field! ⭐ 637 samples tested from sanctuaries & the wild across Africa ⭐ Field DNA extraction, PCR & gels with portable tools incl. Bento Lab ⭐ Insights on prevalence, seasonality & hotspots 🔗Read: microbiologyresearch.org/con…

Here’s a simple, cheap, rapid, and solvent-free DNA extraction method that might be worth trying for plants that contain high levels of PCR inhibitors, It was developed by Selvarajan et al. (2015) to help detect banana bunchy top virus (a single-stranded DNA virus) in banana leaves. Banana leaves contain high levels of polyphenols, polysaccharides, and tannins which can complicate DNA extraction and inhibit PCR. And if it works in this difficult case, then maybe it’ll work for other difficult plants too? The method involves maceration of plant tissue in Tris-HCl buffer with 0.65% sodium sulphite and 1.5% polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), followed by 10 mins incubation at 95 °C and centrifugation. The supernatant can then be diluted 10x and used directly for PCR. In this protocol sodium sulphite (a reducing agent) is used to prevent the activity of polyphenolic oxidases that produce PCR-inhibiting polyphenolic compounds (often seen as browning of plant tissues or extraction homogenates). PVP is used to adsorb and remove polyphenolic compounds and other PCR-inhibiting compounds. The authors' DNA extraction and PCR workflow gave a 99.1% success rate from 224 samples, allowing the detection of single-stranded viral DNA in crude extract diluted up to 512 times. The method was estimated to be 20x cheaper than a CTAB/chloroform extraction and 280x cheaper than a kit DNA extraction. The really nice part of this method (if it works for your application) is that sodium sulfite and PVP are relatively safe, cheap, and accessible chemicals. Because of this, it could be very useful for high-throughput projects, resource-limited scenarios, or field and home applications. Here’s the article: Selvarajan et al. (2015). A simple, rapid and solvent free nucleic acid extraction protocol for detection of banana bunchy top virus by polymerase chain reaction and loop-mediated isothermal amplification. European Journal of Plant Pathology, 142, 389-396. buff.ly/4hd8sHW The image below shows banana plants infected by banana bunchy top virus, image CC0 by Scott Nelson.