What are some advantages/disadvantages to using Lentiviral vs. other transfection methods?
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Improve lentiviral production using Lipofectamine 3000 reagent
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For hard to transfect, non-dividing cells, Lentiviral transfection offers a high efficiency solution for attaining good expression levels. However, the time and difficulty associated with lentiviral production makes this method difficult and time consuming. In addition, a proper safety-level lab is necessary for production and use of the virus. An important note is that lentiviral delivery is often associated with genomic integration which can be avoided with other transfection methods.
An alternative method for transfection that is highly effective in non-dividing and primary cells is the use of mRNA and MessengerMAX. This is a fast and easy method using a non-viral delivery system that provides high efficiency transfection.