StudiesReverse Transcriptase Having the right set of tools for an experiment is often key to its success. Over the years, however, the use of such fundamental tools—like reverse transcriptase—can become routine. The Science Advisory Board challenged over 500 members to re-examine what specific features of reverse transcriptase (e.g., performance, cost, brand) contribute to creating the best enzyme to meet their research needs. Highlights from this assessment are presented below and can be used as a guide when selecting and utilizing this pivotal enzyme. Reverse transcriptase is the engine that is driving the growth of gene expression analysis. In today’s lab, scientists depend upon reverse transcription to enable their study of gene expression, both at the RNA and protein levels. Although academic and industrial study respondents use their reverse transcriptase similarly, there are two notable differences. Industrial researchers devote slightly more of their enzyme to constructing cDNA libraries and much less of it to RT-PCR than academic researchers. Both academic and industrial researchers anticipate that they will be increasing their usage of reverse transcriptase over the next 12 months. This demand translates into a 19% increase for academia and a 14% increase for industry. However, these throughput projections differ significantly by technique for these two market segments. The number of reactions for probe labeling, in particular, is projected to grow substantially in 2006 for academic respondents (31%). For industrial respondents, the largest growth rate for reverse transcriptase reactions is forecasted for the construction of cDNA libraries (24%). Most study respondents identified Invitrogen as their primary supplier of reverse transcriptase. Although Applied Biosystems was rated as the second most popular primary brand overall, it had a stronger showing with industrial researchers. Academic researchers’ top two brands are Invitrogen and Promega and industrial respondents’ top two brands are Invitrogen and Applied Biosystems. “Respondents’ principle motivation for purchasing a particular brand of reverse transcriptase is because they are currently using this brand, although its significance varies by supplier,” explains Mike Kibler, Executive Director of The Science Advisory Board. A greater percentage of respondents who use Qiagen as their primary brand of reverse transcriptase are highly satisfied with their supplier’s performance as compared to respondents who use one of the other top brands. Promega’s customers were the only ones to highly rate their supplier’s reverse transcriptase as providing the best value for the money. Value is composed of quality, service, and price. When assessing reverse transcriptase performance, most study respondents are reasonably satisfied with their level of enzyme fidelity and lot-to-lot consistency. Researchers expressed a greater level of dissatisfaction with their reverse transcriptase brand’s ability to achieve full-length synthesis and/or to exhibit a high degree of priming specificity. A greater percentage of Invitrogen’s and Qiagen’s customers are willing to recommend their brand of reverse transcriptase. The recommendation of a colleague has been shown to be the number one reason to try a product never used before (Learning About Life Science Products Study, The Science Advisory Board, 2005). ### Do you want to find out what your colleagues like the best or dislike the most about the reverse transcriptase products currently on the market? Please click here to find out how Science Advisory Board members think suppliers can improve these reagents. [ View Current & Future Studies ] [ View Past Studies ] |
|