Friday, February 12, 2010

Gel Electrophoresis

On Wednesday and Thursday we did Gel Electrophoresis using food coloring to see how molecules of different sizes move through the gel. The first step was to load the gels.
One all of the wells are loaded, an electrical current is run through the gel to move the molecules.

Voila! Results! Look closely and you can see that the black in the first well (on the bottom), has actually separated out into a purple and an orange. Blue is the largest molecule and therefore it moved the shortest distance. Gels were made with 2.5g agarose and 250mL 1x TAE buffer and run for ~ 20 minutes.

1 comment:

mallu said...

Hi Honors Biology @ Lawrenceville,
I am searching for a cheaper way to perform the food dye electrophoresis lab, but have been unsuccessful getting clear bands as pictured in your results. Did you make your own dye solutions, and if so, what does it contain? Thanks for any info!