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Announcing the Winners of The Scientist’s Top 10 Innovations

For eight years running, The Scientist has sought out the best and brightest laboratory and research products of the year. The 2015 installment of our Top 10 Innovations competition is no exception. "We are very excited to present another fine crop of tools and technologies," said Editor-in-Chief Mary Beth Aberlin. "Our expert panel of independent judges had a very difficult job to pick the top life science products from a very competitive list of submissions."

The winners of The Scientist’s Top 10 Innovations of 2015 contest are:

  1. GemCode (10X Genomics) – This platform automates the equivalent of more than a million pipetting steps for highly parallel sample partitioning and molecular barcoding prior to sequencing, making the analysis of short-read sequences much more informative.
  2. MiSeq FGx Forensic Genomics System (Illumina) – This benchtop sequencer is the first next-generation sequencing tool validated for use in forensic laboratories seeking to pull information from degraded, fragmented DNA samples or from mixtures of genetic material from multiple people.
  3. Ion S5 & Ion s5 XL (Thermo Fisher Scientific) – These systems can perform a DNA sequencing run in just one hour, from library preparation to sequencing reads.
  4. On-demand CRISPR genomic deletions in human HAP1 cells (Horizon) – This service can deliver cell lines with up to 100 Kb of genomic DNA sequence deleted in just 12 weeks.
  5. NanoLuc Binary Interaction Technology – “NanoBit” (Promega) – This system can tag two molecular components with subunits that enhance the activity of luciferase, making the study of dynamic protein:protein interactions possible.
  6. CRISPR Epigenetic Activator (Sigma Aldrich) – This tool uses epigenetic remodeling to modulate the expression of single target genes, facilitating precise genomic manipulation without the need for direct modification of DNA.
  7. Phenoptics (PerkinElmer) – This methodology allows for the phenotyping of immune cells in situ in formalin-fixed tissue, which can improve immunotherapies by more accurately reflecting the cellular milieu of target tissues.
  8. XF Cell Energy Phenotype Test Kit (Seahorse Bioscience, a part of Agilent Technologies) – This reagent kit allows researchers to record the metabolic phenotype of a cell sample and compare the baseline to a stressed or drugged state over time.
  9. Celsee PREP400 and Celsee ANALYZER (Celsee Diagnostics) – These microfluidic devices capture and functionally characterize circulating tumor cells, bringing liquid biopsy closer to becoming a clinical reality.
  10. 3D Cell Explorer (Nanolive) – This 3-D microscope uses only light, not labels or tags, to interrogate the internal world of the cell in high resolution.

Congratulations to all of this year’s winners. Be sure to visit the-scientist.com/2015Top10 where you can read more about the products that earned top spots, see bios and comments from our expert judges, and watch a slideshow of the runners-up.