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Addgene provides an open forum for plasmid sharing

Nature Biotechnology volume 30, pages 316–317 (2012)Cite this article

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To the Editor:

Resource sharing has always been a key part of the scientific process. Centralized repositories—or biological resource centers (BRCs)—streamline the sharing process1 by archiving, maintaining and distributing reagents to the entire academic community. Addgene, a nonprofit BRC (Cambridge, MA, USA), was founded in 2004 as a repository for archiving and distributing important plasmids, standardizing information, facilitating legal agreements required for transfers, and developing common quality-control practices. This repository complements model organism–specific resources, such as Flybase, Xenbase, Zfin, Wormbase and the Jackson Laboratories, and reagent collections, such as those distributed by the American Type Culture Collection and the Developmental Hybridoma Bank.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank our community of >1,100 Addgene depositors (http://www.addgene.org/browse/pi/) for their helpful discussions on resource-sharing practices over the years.

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  1. Addgene, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

    Melanie Herscovitch, Eric Perkins, Andy Baltus & Melina Fan

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  1. Melanie Herscovitch
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  2. Eric Perkins
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  3. Andy Baltus
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  4. Melina Fan
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Correspondence to Melanie Herscovitch.

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All authors are employed by Addgene.

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Herscovitch, M., Perkins, E., Baltus, A. et al. Addgene provides an open forum for plasmid sharing. Nat Biotechnol 30, 316–317 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.2177

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