MacVector Talk: January 2015: A review of 2014 and what’s coming in 2015.

MacVector and Assembler: What’s Next! We strive to make MacVector the best sequence analysis app for the Mac. This means our developers are continually at work redesigning every aspect of MacVector, not only to improve functionality, but also to ensure that MacVector is always optimized for the latest versions of OS X. In addition we […]

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101 things you (maybe) didn’t know about MacVector: #37 – Testing PCR Primer Pairs Using Primer3

Over the past few releases of MacVector, we have been adding a lot of functionality to the Quicktest Primer and Primer Design (Primer3) interfaces and slowly removing the old outdated primer design functions. The general strategy is that anything you need to do with a single primer, you can accomplish using the Quicktest Primer interface. […]

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Calculating the melting temperature of PCR primers

Calculating an accurate melting temperature of your oligos, your template and of the predicted product is important to set the cycling parameters of your PCR machine. The Tm calculations in MacVector were updated in MacVector 12.6 to use a more modern algorithm. MacVector has always used thermodynamic “nearest neighbor” calculations, but there were two changes […]

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Testing primers with MacVector 13

New to MacVector 13 is the ability to quickly test a pair of primers. Previously to test a pair of primers with the Primer3 tool you needed to modify the expected product and reduce the stringency of all parameters so that your primers would be accepted. Now when you enter a pair of primers into […]

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101 things you (maybe) didn’t know about MacVector: #22 – Aligning Primers To A Reference Sequence

There are a number of different ways that you can find the potential binding locations of primers on a sequence using MacVector. You can use the Quicktest Primer function, or create a Primer database and scan for potential primer binding sites using the Analyze | Nucleic Acid Subsequence analysis algorithm. You can also use the […]

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101 things you (maybe) didn’t know about MacVector: #17 – Creating A Primer Database From An Excel File

Following on from my last post, and Nick’s comment that if you already have a primer collection, its not really practical to re-type them all into MacVector, one-by-one, here’s a useful tip to simplify that process. We have a utility called PrimerConverter.app that you can download from our website. You do need to be using […]

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101 things you (maybe) didn’t know about MacVector: #16 – Using A Primer Database

If you have accumulated a collection of primers in your freezer, then you should consider storing the sequences in a primer database within MacVector so that you can rapidly scan any new plasmids for potential primer binding sites. Plus, you’ll have a nice electronic record of all your primer sequences. Start by choosing File | […]

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101 things you (maybe) didn’t know about MacVector: #11 – What Is The Tm Of My Primer?

So, you have a primer sequence and you want to know what its melting temperature is? Well, MacVector has a lot of Primer Design functionality, and sometimes its difficult to know where to start. If you have MacVector 12.6 or later, the easiest and quickest way to do this is using the Quicktest Primer functionality. […]

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Upgrade or purchase a new license in August 2012 and receive a 10% discount.

To celebrate the recent release of MacVector 12.6 and the release of Mountain Lion we are offering a 10% discount on all new licenses and upgrades throughout August. Here are some of the new features in MacVector 12.6. If you like what you see and are interested in purchasing a license, or upgrading an existing […]

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QuickTest Primer: Designing Primers in MacVector

MacVector has a brand new tool for designing primers. QuickTest Primer completely changes the way primers can be designed on a computer. It simplifies primer design by showing your primer and its statistics in realtime. Does your primer have a hairpin? Nudge it along your template until the hairpin goes? Want to add a restriction […]

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