Southern Hospitality...

Measure twice, run once

Once your gel has set-up, the comb is removed and the sample is loaded into the wells using a nifty Pipetman like this. You can dial in any setting you'd like (mine is set to 13 microliters) and load the gel. One other thing that is added to the gel is a reagent which sneaks its way into the DNA sample as it runs through the gel and allows the sample to be visualized later on a UV light box. It will glow a lovely shade of orange/pink not unlike a suit I have. A bit too colorful for the FBI but maybe if I ever work in the public sector...

Once the samples are loaded in the wells of the gel, the gel is submerged in a running buffer and a electric current is passed through the gel. The charged DNA molecules run through the gel and separate by size with the smaller fragments passing more quickly through the gel matrix. Is everybody still with me?

Electrophoresis

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Alien Ice Picktures Main Page | Pipetman | BioRad Gel Electrophoresis