News

"The most popular request I receive in the DNA core lab is: find the good clone among this group of 'candidate' minipreps. Alignment of ABI data files against a 'reference' sequence (template file) quickly eliminates defectives by showing not only base changes but the consequences to the protein translation. The second most popular request is: validate this new maxiprep so it can be given to ... or used for ... or expressed in ... Rapid assembly and editing of total plasmid sequence and then comparison to the reference file on record is all done in Sequencher. The third most popular request is: compare this library of (protein improvement) mutants and tell me which ones have protein changes. This is done by alignment in Sequencher and then formatting the Summary view to display the resulting changes in protein translation. For my own projects, I use Sequencher as a very general multiple-alignment sequence editor. Most recently, I've been using it to make comparisons of genes retrieved from the databases for cross-species cDNA cloning. Showing regions of homology at the protein level and then having the colinear DNA sequence presented in the same view (Summary window) helps find regions suitable for primer design. Turning on the Matching Bases/Residues as Dashes quickly shows regions of homology and divergence. I design primers to either or both depending on the project. "

"After using Sequencher for years as a grad student, I was forced to switch to MacVector as a postdoc in a new lab. Sequencher is so much easier to use than MacVector and has such a superior interface that I used the demo version of Sequencher for months rather than the lab copy of MacVector. Sequencher feels as though it is written by biologists that can write software, rather than programmers attempting to write biological software. Any life scientist who has spent time pulling their hair out over non-intuitive software will greatly appreciate this distinction. "

"Sequencher is not just the best sequence analysis program I have used; it is one of the best pieces of software I have used. Period. It is intuitive; it does exactly what I want it to do in pretty much the way I would expect it to work. "

"Thank you for sending the demo version of Sequencher. This seems to be wonderful software for phylogenetic and mutation studies. It clearly indicates start and stop codons in DNA sequences. Sequencher is easy to use and allowed us to quickly align sequences from various individuals. This software is very user friendly, and the instruction manual is very informative. The contig assembly tool is quite amazing in its speedy and time saving functions, which are the requirements for researchers in the biochemical field. I really got exited by running this software. "