Failure Case Library

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

All Techniques (5) 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)
qPCR (RT-qPCR) severe

Reference gene is unstable — normalization fails

Reference gene Ct varies > 1 cycle between samples; trend of reference vs target gene disagrees; normalization gives strange results.

💡 4 causes ✓ 4 fixes
qPCR (RT-qPCR) severe

Abnormal melt curve (multiple peaks or shoulder)

Melt curve shows multiple peaks or a shoulder, Tm does not match expectation, gel shows multiple bands.

💡 5 causes ✓ 5 fixes
qPCR (RT-qPCR) severe

Poor Ct reproducibility — high within-group variability

Technical replicates of the same sample have SD > 0.5 cycles; standard curve linearity is poor; loading order influences results.

💡 5 causes ✓ 5 fixes
qPCR (RT-qPCR) moderate

Atypical amplification curves (not the canonical S-shape)

Curves cross threshold but are not the canonical sigmoidal shape — may have weird plateaus, early plateaus, or noisy baselines.

💡 5 causes ✓ 5 fixes
qPCR (RT-qPCR) critical

No amplification — Ct value missing or > 40

Amplification plot is flat for both target and reference; software reports "no Ct" or Ct > 40 even for positive controls.

💡 5 causes ✓ 5 fixes