The things people ask before they send us a sequence.

A sequence is enough. The 21 working days for E. coli are counted from the sequence and include codon optimisation and cloning. If you supply a validated construct it runs in about 10 working days instead.

A sequence or a description of the target, roughly how much material you need, and what you plan to do with it. A deadline helps. If you would rather not share sequences before an NDA, tell us and we will sign one first.

Usually within one working day. If your target needs a proper look before we can price it honestly, we will say so rather than send a number we would have to revise.

Yes, and it costs nothing. Send the sequence and the intended use. Sometimes the answer is "E. coli, and it will cost you half of what you were expecting"; sometimes it is "this needs a mammalian cell"; occasionally it is "we are not the right lab for this".

Proteins, enzymes, antigens and recombinant antibodies, in E. coli or in transient CHO and HEK293. Single domains, fragments, full-length IgG, Fc fusions and receptor ectodomains are routine.

No insect cell or baculovirus expression, no yeast, no GMP or clinical-grade material, and no supply for diagnostic or therapeutic use. We also do not raise antibodies — no immunisation, no hybridoma work. We express sequences you already have.

Up to 10 L in E. coli. Beyond that you are into process development and a dedicated CDMO will serve you better; we will say so rather than stretch past what we run well.

10–100 mg per litre is typical in E. coli for a well-behaved target. Yield depends heavily on the protein, so we give a realistic range in the quote instead of a catalogue number.

His-tag on the N-terminus, and only that, with optional cleavage. It suits the overwhelming majority of research targets and standardising on it is part of how we hold the turnaround. If your project needs the tag at the C-terminus or a fusion partner for solubility, we will tell you at the quote stage that we are not the right lab for it.

BL21(DE3), and only that one. We would rather run one strain properly — same purification, same QC, same failure modes we already know — than keep a shelf of specialist strains and hand you a slower, less predictable project. When a protein misbehaves we change induction temperature, induction method or construct boundaries.

Endotoxin is a bacterial product, so this is a question about our E. coli route. On bacterial batches it is low as standard — how we work rather than an option you add on — and we measure it and report the value with the batch. It is not part of the standard QC panel on mammalian runs. If your assay has a specific threshold it must meet, tell us and we will confirm before you order.

Some targets are hard, and we say so before taking the order rather than after. The small-scale test in the middle of the process exists precisely to surface this early, while changing temperature, induction method or construct boundaries is still cheap.

Common and often fixable. We try the inexpensive routes first — lower induction temperature, auto-induction instead of IPTG, adjusted construct boundaries. If refolding is realistic for that target we quote it as a separate step rather than silently spending your budget on attempts.

We agree this in writing before starting. What is fair depends on how far the work got and how predictable the failure was — the point is that you know the terms before you commit, not after.

We tell you as soon as we know, with an explanation and a revised plan. Biology sometimes refuses to cooperate; a supplier who only mentions it on the due date is a different problem.

They stay yours. We sign your NDA before you send anything, we do not reuse constructs across customers, and we do not use your sequences for anything other than your project.

Only if you ask. By default we destroy remaining material and constructs at project close. You can ask for the plasmid to be shipped to you, or held so a repeat order is faster.

You do. We are a service provider making a molecule to your specification; we make no claim on your target, your construct or anything you discover with the material.

We can express a sequence you supply, and it is your responsibility to have the right to use it. We do not perform freedom-to-operate assessments, and everything is supplied for research use only.

Dry ice or blue ice, tracked courier, next-day within the EU. Aliquot sizes to your specification, so you are not freeze-thawing an entire batch to run one experiment.

Yes, though it costs more and takes longer, and the cold chain becomes the risk. Much of our advantage is that EU customers avoid exactly that — worth weighing up.

A batch record with host, strain or cell line, construct, buffer, volume and date, plus the QC data: gel image, concentration and size-exclusion profile — and, on bacterial batches, the measured endotoxin value.

No. Research-grade, for R&D use only. Not for clinical, diagnostic or therapeutic use, and not for administration to humans or animals. We will not supply it for those purposes.

Invoice against a purchase order, on terms agreed at the quote stage. We are used to institutional procurement and will complete supplier forms.