Nature Protocols aims to publish the protocols being used to answer outstanding biological and biomedical science research questions, including methods grounded in physics and chemistry that have a practical application to the study of biological problems.

Specific techniques of interest include, but are not limited to, protocols relating to:

Recombinant DNA, protein and other macromolecules

cloning, protein expression, DNA sequencing, protein purification, in vitro protein synthesis/reconstitution, protein unfolding/refolding, native chemical ligation, solid phase peptide synthesis, solid phase oligonucleotide synthesis, genotyping, oligonucleotide sequencing, solid phase carbohydrate synthesis and molecular engineering

Construction and screening of libraries and arrays of nucleic acids, proteins and chemical compounds

drugs, RNAi, proteins, DNA, RNA, sequencing, arrays (including small molecule microarrays), RT-PCR, SAGE, genomics, proteomics, combinatorial chemistry, lab-on-a-chip technologies, SELEX, protein evolution, metagenomics and metabolomics

Isolation and purification of biological molecules

cloning, protein expression, electrophoresis, chromatography, chiral separation, immunoaffinity, affinity chromatography, molecular structure determination and other separation techniques

Detection and probing of biological molecules

labeling, epitope tagging, amplification of nucleic acids (including RT-PCR), single molecule detection and characterization, mutation detection, Raman scattering, genotyping, histology, labeling, hybridization techniques, probe scanning, chemical tagging of molecules and FISH

Structural analysis of biological molecules

crystallization, NMR, mass spectrometry, atomic force microscopy, electron microscopy (including cryo-EM), FT infrared spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering and MALDI-TOF

Functional analysis of biological molecules, including trafficking

epitope tagging, two-hybrid, three-hybrid, western/far western, northern, Southern, coimmunoprecipitation, surface-plasmon based resonance, detection of post-translational modifications (phosphorylation, sulfonylation, glycosylation, lipidation, etc), apoptosis, cell cycle, senescence, FRET, activity-based proteomics and single molecule experiments (optical tweezers, etc)

Analysis of interactions between biological molecules

mass spectrometry, binding assays, surface-plasmon based resonance, sequencing, chemical tagging of biomolecules, BRET, FRET, two-hybrid, three-hybrid, molecular structure determination, analytical ultracentrifugation, UV-visible spectroscopy, calorimetry, circular dichroism spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, IR and NMR

Functional analysis of drugs and drug-like entities

receptor binding, surface-plasmon based resonance, high-throughput assays, enzyme assays (including ELISA), ion channel assays, chemical genetics/chemical genomics, analysis of drug metabolites and target identification

Analysis and manipulation of gene expression

gene targeting, transduction, RNAi, mutagenesis, bacteriophages, plasmids, transfection, genomics, proteomics, metabolomics/metabonomics and chemical genetics/chemical genomics

Cell and tissue culture

isolation and identification, manipulation, transfection, RNAi, organelle isolation, cell/tissue equivalents to animal models, tissue engineering and stem cells

Spectroscopy

mass spectrometry, surface-plasmon based resonance spectroscopy, circular dichroism spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, IR and NMR

Cytometry

cellular, molecular, nucleic acid and cytogenetics

Electrophysiology

patch-clamp, single electrode voltage-clamp, two electrode voltage-clamp, extracellular recordings and bilayer recordings

Imaging

microscopy, optical spectroscopy, x-ray tomography, whole cell NMR, single cell manipulation, live cell and tissue imaging, MRI, PET, chemical imaging reagents and fMRI

Immunological techniques

production of ab, ab-based assays, immunolabeling, virology, antibody engineering and xenotransplantation

Bioinformatics

management and analysis of data, intron/exon structure identification, expression pattern databases and statistical methods/computer programs to analyse microarrays

Chemoinformatics

ligand and small molecule design, management and analysis of data and predictive ADMETox (including cLogP)

Utilizing model organisms, including creation, husbandry, development, behavioural assays, disease models

cell/tissue equivalent assays, yeast, Zebrafish, in silico equivalents, C. elegans, Drosophila, mouse, rat, guinea pig, human, Xenopus, Arabidopsis and others

In silico modeling that, where possible, has been validated experimentally

populations, single organisms, organs, tissues, cells, protein structures, protein interactions, protein engineering, protein folding/unfolding, network systems/systems biology and complexity

Nanotechnology

nanobiology, nanobiotechnology, quantum dots, nanomedicine, drug delivery, imaging contrast agents, nanoelectromechanical devices and lab-on-a-chip technologies