In November 2021 we hosted a Lab Member of the Year contest. This contest allowed for various members of the research community to be highlighted for their contributions to their respective labs. At the end of it all Dr. Francesc X. "Xavi" Ruiz Figueras, an assistant research professor at Rutgers' Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine, took first place and became ABclonal's Lab Member of the Year.

Dr. Ruiz Figueras is a highly skilled scientist who has made significant scientific contributions to the fields of enzymology and structural biology studying the structure and function of human and viral proteins, especially HIV-1 reverse transcriptase and human aldo-keto reductases, with an emphasis on catalysis and inhibition for drug discovery¹. In his spare time he enjoys playing basketball, reading, and spending time with his family. Currently, he is reading a book about philosophy, which he feels has applications to living during these pandemic times. He believes we should take whatever the life lessons we can take from this book in order to hopefully be more resilient.

We sat down with Dr. Ruiz to discuss his lab life at Rutgers, his current research, and what he is looking forward to researching in the future. 

As a dedicated supplier of research reagents, we're passionate about making sure that your experiments run as smoothly and efficiently as possible. From our ABclonal Knowledge Base, we've compiled a list of helpful articles that address common issues and difficulties that you may run into while conducting your lab experiments, including ELISAs, measuring cell proliferation, western blotting, and casting SDS-PAGE gels. If you're looking for advice, troubleshooting tips, or recommended procedures, we've got you covered:

With labs across the country in various stages of reopening, it can be tough to transition right back into the physical office after months of working from home. Throughout your typical day in the lab, you may find that there are many instances where you've got a few odd minutes (or even hours) here and there. Oftentimes, these periods are used to scroll through your phone or catch up on social media. Here are five suggestions on how to productively fill in those gaps while you're waiting for your experiments to run.

In recent days, there have been developments and progress towards initial re-opening of states across the country. For many of us, however, returning to work will be a more gradual process and will still involve some time at home as companies, localities, and the country as a whole work towards resuming normal life while maintaining social distancing and mitigating chances for secondary waves of infection. Thus, it’s still incredibly important to keep in mind these 5 strategies for working effectively, and healthily, at home:

The current COVID-19 public health crisis is unprecedented in the U.S. and worldwide. Everyone, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, medical workers, and biology researchers are busy doing whatever they can to fight against this epidemic. To help them handle the emergency and buy time for the suffering patients, ABclonal developed ABScript II One Step RT-qPCR Probe Kit (RK20407), a ready-to-use kit that can be used to quantify RNA with outstanding performance. Here, we would like to introduce the kit as well as the four reasons that you should use it.

Western blot results can either be the highlight of the day, or a scientist's worst nightmare. Unfortunately, it usually turns out to be the latter of the two. After a long hard day of work, nothing can ruin the day more than seeing your western blot results come out blotchy and unreadable. Luckily, there are many ways to prevent and fix a messy blot to ensure you get the best results possible, rather than ending up with something horrific like the image below. To avoid these situations, I have outlined some tips to keep in mind before going through with your western blot test.