Addgene • Addgene (http://www.addgene.org) is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to accelerate research and biomedical discovery by facilitating access to useful research materials and information. To fulfill this mission, Addgene maintains a repository that distributes >50,000 plasmids contributed by scientists coming from more than 3,000 different labs all over the world. The repository stores, quality controls, and annotates the data associated with the plasmids. Addgene also recently started providing ready-to-use viral particles produced from select plasmids in the repository. Researchers can use these viral particles directly in their experiments, thereby skipping the viral production process and accelerating their research. All plasmid data is made freely available to the public at Addgene.org. Members of the academic and nonprofit research community can request plasmids from the repository for a small fee. In addition, the organization creates useful educational materials covering topics from basic biology to the therapeutic applications of CRISPR for an audience ranging from undergraduate biologists to tenured professors. Every month Addgene distributes ~11,000 plasmids, provides hundreds of viral particles, and publishes posts on a blog receiving >60,000 views per month. Addgene is an essential and global resource for the academic life sciences.