September 1, 2014 (Vol. 34, No. 15)

URL:
http://bit.ly/1q2ItUq

Rating:
Strong Points: Good variety of tools
Weak Points: App can be somewhat unresponsive, occasionally glitchy

Platform:
iPhone/iPad

Cost:
Free (may go up soon)

Summary:

LabOfficer offers a nice array of resources for bench scientists, all packaged together in a convenient, simple app. The app is composed of four sections: buffer checker, screening digestion, alignment, and codon table. The buffer checker tool provides a large list of restriction enzymes and their cut sites. Users can select a specific enzyme to display its buffer compatibility (New England Biolabs buffers) and other essential information such as digestion conditions and heat inactivation requirements. The screening digestion feature allows users to upload DNA sequences (either locally or from Dropbox) and search for restriction enzyme sites that meet user-specified parameters. Similarly, the alignment feature of the app lets users align and compare multiple uploaded sequences. Finally, the codon table tool presents a standard codon table, but it also offers the convenient option to type in three nucleotides to quickly identify the corresponding amino acid.

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