To help labs pursue more sustainable practices, Thermo Fisher Scientific has launched a next generation Invitrogen TaqMan Cells-to-CT Express Kit, offering simplified, scalable workflows for gene expression analysis that produce less plastic waste.

With improved chemistry, the Cells-to-CT Express Kit helps facilitate the preparation of cell lysates for reverse transcription (RT) real-time PCR (qPCR) in just 5 minutes. 

With the Cells-to-CT Express Kit, researchers can measure relative gene expression while skipping the traditional RNA purification step when performing RT-qPCR. Instead, with only 5 minutes of prep time required, they can go directly from cultured cells to RT-qPCR. This not only promotes a faster workflow overall, with results delivered from an entire plate of cells in 70 minutes, but also reduces the plastic waste generated from the process. 

With the Cells-to-CT Express Kit, the amount of waste generated is approximately 8.1 grams of plastic. In contrast, with a traditional RNA purification kit, the waste generated is approximately 106.9 grams. This is equivalent to a 92.4% reduction in plastic waste when using the Cells-to-CT Express Kit.