It is Earth Day today and Allele Biotech wants to contribute to this important occasion by reminding us all of the things we can do as bench biologists to save our planet everyday.
The first and easiest thing everyone can do is to turn off lights, lab equipment, and office electronics at the end of the day or when not in use. Leaving a computer on overnight to avoid the painful two minute booting in the morning can cost up to $80 extra dollars in energy per computer per year! We are all guilty of squandering our energy and this is the cheapest and easiest way to significantly cut waste. Additionally, Allele can help cut electrical energy costs in your lab by supplying our compact, low energy, low cost laboratory equipment.
Second, if you work in a San Diego laboratory you can help the environment by purchasing laboratory supplies from a local company like Allele Biotech! Enable Green Thinking in your laboratory by purchasing locally and reducing greenhouse gasses and fuel use that would otherwise be generated from ordering from distant companies. Allele Biotech has 1000’s of products to choose from at low costs.
Third way to better our Earth (Allele’s Favorite) is recycling. We always reuse what we can and recycle what we cannot. It has been our longtime policy to collect boxes from other companies for recycling or repackaging. If you are a San Diego company that has extra Styrofoam boxes we will gladly pick them up and even pay you cash to take them off your hands!
Fourth, and very important, is to eliminate biowaste. As bench biologists, we have the power to do this by discerning what we throw away in the lab trash, especially those labeled as biowaste, radioactive waste, or chemical waste. It is so easy to throw the gloves boxes, plastic drinking bottles, or packaging materials in with all the culture tubes or chemicals when you are busy. However, taking the time to put these trash items into their correct receptacles is invaluable and imperative for the preservation of our Earth.
Fifth and last, if you worked on projects related to “green energy” as Obama called for today, congratulations, you are already making a difference to our environment. Get that algae to churn out some biofuel, quick!
Check back with us for tips on how to eliminate energy waste and even make money while doing so!!
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
iPSC forum anybody?
Allele_allis there a forum of discussing iPSC technologies and news? If not we are thinking of having one http://allelebiotech.com/bl...
BTW: The earth day means thinking about what you can do to help our one, common, and only home. Think about it.
BTW: The earth day means thinking about what you can do to help our one, common, and only home. Think about it.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
iPS- #1 Breakthrough of 2008 Now at Allele!
Hailed as Science Magazine’s “#1 Breakthrough of the Year” for 2008, induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell research is proving to be the most promising means of worldwide disease comprehension and eradication since the discovery of penicillin. iPS research is moving fast and institutions are racing to make the coveted advancements to: reveal the triggering and oppressing mechanisms of the four pluripotency inducing genes, elucidate how a cell is assigned a role by investigating cell protein signaling pathways, and reduce possible side effects like cancerous tumors at iPS cell therapy sites. As an invitro reagent, iPS cells, unlike human cell lines, can be easily maintained in the lab. By maintaining iPS cell lines from patients with diseases like Parkinson’s it is possible for researchers to examine disease pathology in an affected living cell in ways that cannot be done with invivo cells. Thanks to induced pluripotency, these cell lines can be created with simple, non-invasive hair follicle procurements! Additionally, juxtaposed to the 10 years of controversy following the discovery of human embryonic stem cells, induced pluripotent stem cells will not elicit the same moral or bioethical dilemmas followed by political interference due to their fully developed origin.
Author of Breakthrough of the Year: Reprogramming Cells, Gretchen Vogel stated, “…several more breakthroughs are needed before cellular reprogramming yields its first cure for disease.” Researchers must take advantage of Allele Biotech’s ground-breaking iPS product line. Our scientists have done all the preliminary work to design and construct these easy to use iPS kits to make this phenomenal field of study accessible to all. The global challenge for iPS discovery has begun!
Tags: Allele Biotech, induced pluripotent stem cells, iPS, ips stem cell lines, research kits, science and bioethics, Science Magazine Top Breakthroughs, scientific breakthrough 2008, stem cell controversey
Author of Breakthrough of the Year: Reprogramming Cells, Gretchen Vogel stated, “…several more breakthroughs are needed before cellular reprogramming yields its first cure for disease.” Researchers must take advantage of Allele Biotech’s ground-breaking iPS product line. Our scientists have done all the preliminary work to design and construct these easy to use iPS kits to make this phenomenal field of study accessible to all. The global challenge for iPS discovery has begun!
Tags: Allele Biotech, induced pluripotent stem cells, iPS, ips stem cell lines, research kits, science and bioethics, Science Magazine Top Breakthroughs, scientific breakthrough 2008, stem cell controversey
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Check out our new web… and the new things we do now while you are at it!
It sure takes time and dedication to build a web, and it is a type of project that never is finished. It is amazing how much information one can bring to the whole open world by sitting in front of a computer. You feel so close to people that are getting what you do and what you offer.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Recycling in San Diego
Allele Biotech is proud to announce its dedication to recycling! It has been our longtime practice to reuse cardboard and styrofoam boxes, dry ice, and packaging insulation to minimize the waste generated in San Diego County. Not only are we committed to minimizing packaging waste but it is also a part of our weekly routine at Allele Biotech to transport all unusable cardboard, plastics, glass, and metal to the neighborhood recycling center. We take pride in maintaining Green business practices to better our environment and to help preserve our beautiful San Diego. We do not sell back these recyclables and happily absorb the cost of fuel and labor for transportation because we want to send the message that recycling is everyone’s responsibility.
We would enjoy getting other companies involved in reuse and recycling! If there are any companies in the local San Diego City area that would like to drop off styrofoam boxes or have any tips on how to improve local business recycling programs then we are eager to hear about it!
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Which Banks Think for You the Consumer? -- Capital One, get out of my wallet!
Or rather, which ones do not. Wait a minute, you say, banks are not people, they don’t think. Their employees do but they work for the bank, the bosses, and the shareholders, they don’t have to think on your behalf. But but but wasn’t that what got the banks into trouble in the first place? Anybody who has done any business dealing both as providers and consumers should understand that the consumers, clients, or whoever is paying the money, is the dominant part of a business relationship. Think for the customers, business runs well; think not, look at the mess the banks are in right now. After all the mess, it was still us, all the consumers, who had be pulled together by the government to bail them out with our tax money, right?
And don’t be foolish enough to think whichever banks do more TV ads must be more trustworthy, such as Capital One, you know the silly Viking raiders slamming open a lobster with a weapon or going through airport with axes and stuff. It is the cooperate culture, the attitude and philosophy of average employees, and ultimately the management’s overall style and day-to-day decision making that make a bank user-friendly or simply indecent and intolerable and better be left dead.
The reason that good and bad banks coexist, like in any other business, is often times it is improbable for an average consumer to do enough research by direct comparison (or controlled experiments as scientists say). So consumers tend to use information they get elsewhere, unfortunately through TV ads in many cases. Well, recently we were lucky enough to have an opportunity to do direct comparison, side-by-side, of several banks for their response to consumer request. It turned out to be good lesson learned in many aspects: how to choose banks, how to think for our own customers, and as shown here, how to turn bad energy into something useful.
Background: we have business credit card accounts with Citi, American Express (AmEx, mainly for their Costco use), Advanta, and Capital One, needless to say mostly big names in the banking industry. We carried some balance with each one of them, some starting in the current downturn, some longer, but none very big or ever defaulted. Before we noticed, they all raised our interest rate quietly late last year, to ~ 29%! Granted, we had payments sent in late by a day or two with maybe 2 accounts over our entire company history, either because we didn’t receive the statement or the accountant was out of town and forgot to tell others, except in the case with AmEx, we were late consecutively for some 6 months by the same number of days because their statements were sent to an address not often cared for and by mistake, the accountant’s calendar recorded the monthly payday 10 days later than the real date.
While no business can live long with 29% interest rate these days (or any days), the first thing we did was that we called each one of them, here was how they responded:
Advanta: “Oh well, that was the rate your account currently has (repeat after me, ‘my account has a 29% interest rate and’)…”. After some argument, the same person agreed to lower it back to normal rate of about 9%, but in some 30 days. That was fine and we were appreciative.
Citi: One gentleman answered phone call right away, looked into our account, and in a few seconds, said that the rate “will be reverted back to the original one” TOMORROW! (it made me feel like suggesting maybe it didn’t have to be in such a rush, like next week would be fine). After all we paid a few hundred dollars on the extra interest for some time, yet we felt like we owed that person, and hence the bank a gratitude. I told my accountant to pay off Citi’s balance the last and use their card the most for purchases.
AmEx: We were told about the late payments due to our mistaken due date in consecutive months. After speaking with about 3 or 4 people at different 1-800 numbers, we got it that we had to wait for 18 months without late payment for the rate to change back. But the last person, a customer account specialist/manager, did show a lot of sympathy listening to my repeated arguments, and suggested that the policy was pretty fixed and inflexible, but if we could go file a document arguing some responsibility on the bank, e.g. keep sending the statements to the address we didn’t want them to use, and not notifying us of late payments when it first occurred. I then wrote a letter to the management stating my case, in about a week, a person called to confirm mail address and phone number, then a letter came stating that the rate has been lowered. Not a bad result. Sure I spent some hours on it but consider that part of doing business.
Capital One: Long story short, phone calls got kicked around a bit, and a few representatives later we were told the same policy as AmEx: “Oh you will have to wait18 months since the last late payment, m’K? (If you are a naughty again we will have to give you another 18 months in confinement and see if you still have any blood left). Nobody can change the policy set in the software (which obviously is much harder to erase then if set in stone)...” Then I wrote a similar letter as to AmEx. Capital One didn't call me, they just sent me a letter saying “Thanks for contacting us about your Capital One account. … At this time, we are unable to accommodate your written request based on our existing credit policies… You are a valued customer and we thank you for choosing Capital One.” I guess we are not that valued and would definitely not choose Capital One ever again.
You can argue that the banks as business should charge you as much as they can whenever they can, all we consumers can do is leave and get another account. And hey, don’t forget about them late payments. Fair enough, fair enough, if it’s all business. Still we want to ask, is it fair to charge some 30% interest because a check comes in late by 2 days, is it just an excuse for changing business terms or is it based on statistical risk assessment and return calculations? If none of these questions matter, then is there honor and dignity in business, courtesy and decency in working with a customer?
Feel free to copy/paste or email.
And don’t be foolish enough to think whichever banks do more TV ads must be more trustworthy, such as Capital One, you know the silly Viking raiders slamming open a lobster with a weapon or going through airport with axes and stuff. It is the cooperate culture, the attitude and philosophy of average employees, and ultimately the management’s overall style and day-to-day decision making that make a bank user-friendly or simply indecent and intolerable and better be left dead.
The reason that good and bad banks coexist, like in any other business, is often times it is improbable for an average consumer to do enough research by direct comparison (or controlled experiments as scientists say). So consumers tend to use information they get elsewhere, unfortunately through TV ads in many cases. Well, recently we were lucky enough to have an opportunity to do direct comparison, side-by-side, of several banks for their response to consumer request. It turned out to be good lesson learned in many aspects: how to choose banks, how to think for our own customers, and as shown here, how to turn bad energy into something useful.
Background: we have business credit card accounts with Citi, American Express (AmEx, mainly for their Costco use), Advanta, and Capital One, needless to say mostly big names in the banking industry. We carried some balance with each one of them, some starting in the current downturn, some longer, but none very big or ever defaulted. Before we noticed, they all raised our interest rate quietly late last year, to ~ 29%! Granted, we had payments sent in late by a day or two with maybe 2 accounts over our entire company history, either because we didn’t receive the statement or the accountant was out of town and forgot to tell others, except in the case with AmEx, we were late consecutively for some 6 months by the same number of days because their statements were sent to an address not often cared for and by mistake, the accountant’s calendar recorded the monthly payday 10 days later than the real date.
While no business can live long with 29% interest rate these days (or any days), the first thing we did was that we called each one of them, here was how they responded:
Advanta: “Oh well, that was the rate your account currently has (repeat after me, ‘my account has a 29% interest rate and’)…”. After some argument, the same person agreed to lower it back to normal rate of about 9%, but in some 30 days. That was fine and we were appreciative.
Citi: One gentleman answered phone call right away, looked into our account, and in a few seconds, said that the rate “will be reverted back to the original one” TOMORROW! (it made me feel like suggesting maybe it didn’t have to be in such a rush, like next week would be fine). After all we paid a few hundred dollars on the extra interest for some time, yet we felt like we owed that person, and hence the bank a gratitude. I told my accountant to pay off Citi’s balance the last and use their card the most for purchases.
AmEx: We were told about the late payments due to our mistaken due date in consecutive months. After speaking with about 3 or 4 people at different 1-800 numbers, we got it that we had to wait for 18 months without late payment for the rate to change back. But the last person, a customer account specialist/manager, did show a lot of sympathy listening to my repeated arguments, and suggested that the policy was pretty fixed and inflexible, but if we could go file a document arguing some responsibility on the bank, e.g. keep sending the statements to the address we didn’t want them to use, and not notifying us of late payments when it first occurred. I then wrote a letter to the management stating my case, in about a week, a person called to confirm mail address and phone number, then a letter came stating that the rate has been lowered. Not a bad result. Sure I spent some hours on it but consider that part of doing business.
Capital One: Long story short, phone calls got kicked around a bit, and a few representatives later we were told the same policy as AmEx: “Oh you will have to wait18 months since the last late payment, m’K? (If you are a naughty again we will have to give you another 18 months in confinement and see if you still have any blood left). Nobody can change the policy set in the software (which obviously is much harder to erase then if set in stone)...” Then I wrote a similar letter as to AmEx. Capital One didn't call me, they just sent me a letter saying “Thanks for contacting us about your Capital One account. … At this time, we are unable to accommodate your written request based on our existing credit policies… You are a valued customer and we thank you for choosing Capital One.” I guess we are not that valued and would definitely not choose Capital One ever again.
You can argue that the banks as business should charge you as much as they can whenever they can, all we consumers can do is leave and get another account. And hey, don’t forget about them late payments. Fair enough, fair enough, if it’s all business. Still we want to ask, is it fair to charge some 30% interest because a check comes in late by 2 days, is it just an excuse for changing business terms or is it based on statistical risk assessment and return calculations? If none of these questions matter, then is there honor and dignity in business, courtesy and decency in working with a customer?
Feel free to copy/paste or email.
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