Failure Case Library

Real lab failures, root causes, and fixes — curated and bilingually annotated by our team.

All Techniques (1) PCR (Sigma Guide) (12) End-point PCR Primers (9) Western Blot (9) Wound Healing Assay (5) Cell Culture (Contamination) (7) Lipid Transfection (8) CCK-8 Cell Viability Assay (5) Colony Formation Assay (10) Transfection (8) Nucleic Acid Quantification (9) Transfection (Co-transfection) (1) Protein Extraction (4) Plasmid Construction (Double Digest) (1) Sanger Sequencing (2) Plasmid Construction (1) qPCR (RT-qPCR) (5) Transwell Migration / Invasion Assay (5) Immunohistochemistry (IHC) (6) PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) (26) Restriction Enzyme Digest (13) DNA Cleanup & Plasmid Purification (7) RNA Cleanup (4) NGS Library Preparation (NEBNext Ultra II) (7) HMW DNA Extraction (Monarch) (7) LAMP (Loop-mediated Isothermal Amplification) (7) RNA Depletion for RNA-seq (7) Bacterial rRNA Depletion (4) Cell-free DNA Extraction (8) ELISA (Competitive) (18) ELISA (Signal Problems) (11) ELISA (High Background) (8) ELISA (Inconsistent Results / High CV) (6) ELISA (Standard Curve Fit Problems) (6) Western Blot (Weak / No Signal) (6) Western Blot (Detection Problems) (7) Western Blot (Bands at Wrong MW) (5) Western Blot (Misshapen / Uneven Bands) (5) Western Blot (Unexpected Multiple Bands) (7) Western Blot (Unusual Gel Band Appearance) (3) ChIP (High Background) (1) ChIP (Low Resolution with High Background) (6) ChIP (Low Signal) (8) ChIP (PCR Amplification Problems) (4) Immunohistochemistry (High Background) (9) Immunohistochemistry (No Staining) (9) Immunoprecipitation (High Antibody Elution) (1) Immunoprecipitation (High Background) (8) Immunoprecipitation (No Protein Detected) (5) Immunoprecipitation (Protein Obstruction) (1) ELISPOT (8) Tissue Imaging (Autofluorescence) (9) Flow Cytometry (Troubleshooting) (8) ELISA Development (9) Flow Cytometry (Autofluorescence) (7) Flow Cytometry (Compensation) (7) Flow Cytometry (Fc Blocking) (7) Flow Cytometry (Fixation & Permeabilization) (9) Flow Cytometry (Isotype Controls) (7) Flow Cytometry (Fixation Buffers) (7) Western Blot (CST Guide) (8) ChIP (CST Guide) (8) Immunoprecipitation (CST Guide) (14) Immunohistochemistry (CST Guide) (14) Flow Cytometry (CST Guide) (8) ELISA (R&D Guide) (10) ELISA (Sigma Guide) (6) Western Blot Immunodetection (19) IP-Western Blot (6) Flow Cytometry (Sample Considerations) (14) Flow Cytometry (Paraformaldehyde Fixation) (14) Western Blot (Sigma Protocol) (8) PCR / RT-PCR Amplification Problems (5) Cell Culture (Cell Death) (8) Cell Culture (Precipitates) (6) PCR (Invitrogen Guide) (8) PCR / qPCR Plastics (9) Flow Cytometry (Controls) (8) Plasmid Mini-prep (1) Transfection (siRNA Knockdown) (1) Western Blot (Blue Background) (1)
ChIP (High Background) severe

High Background Signal in Non-Specific Antibody Controls

ChIP experiments show elevated signal levels in non-specific antibody controls (IgG or no-antibody controls), making it difficult to distinguish true binding events from background noise. The signal-to-noise ratio is poor, compromising data interpretation.

💡 5 causes ✓ 6 fixes