Due to Customs restrictions, we only accept orders from educational institutions within the Continental United States, Alaska or Hawaii. How to Use an Electrophoresis Chamber
Electrophoresis is one of the most useful teaching tools available to high school and college biology instructors seeking to give their students a memorable, hands-on learning experience of the nature of DNA, RNA, and biological proteins. With convenient, budget-friendly electrophoresis supplies from Modern Biology, biology teachers can provide their classes with all the tools they need to master the basics of this profoundly useful technique.
What Is Electrophoresis?
Electrophoresis is the process of using a spatially uniform electrical field to separate charged particles. The electrokinetic phenomenon of electrophoresis was first observed over 200 years ago by Russian professors Reuss and Strahkov, who observed clay particles dispersed in water to migrate from one end of the solution to the other.
The technique evolved so that can be used to separate many different kinds of positively charged macromolecules on the basis of size, smaller macromolecules moving faster than larger macromolecules from an anode to a cathode across an electrically charged medium.
Biology teachers help their students visualize the motion of macromolecules across a charged gel with dyes. Applying dyes to an unknown protein and a standard gives everyone a visual check on the relative progress of the molecule across the electrophoresis chamber.
Determining the relative size of molecules is as simple as turning off the current when one molecule has reached the other side. The molecule that reaches the cathode first is smaller, and the proportional distance traveled by the other indicates how much larger it is.
Students can cut out dyed strips from the gel for further analysis of tested material. In this way, electrophoresis can be used as a purification tool for separating mixtures of proteins, DNA, or RNA.
How to Do Electrophoresis
Modern Biology makes electrophoresis easy.
Our E1101 myGel™ Mini Electrophoresis System & Accessories is a complete horizontal gel system including gel box, casting sets, and power supply. Suitable for classrooms, independent projects, or personal use, the gel box of the myGel mini provides a secure connection every time.
There are three preset voltages, 100V, 50V, and 35V, and a 99-minute timer. This electrophoresis unit is equipped with a vented safety lid to dissipate heat generated by the process, and has a safety feature that only allows current to run through the system when the safety lid is properly secured.
Modern Biology’s E1201 myGel InstaView™ Electrophoresis System & Accessories is a complete electrophoresis system equipped with a blue LED illuminator. This system makes the entire process of running DNA gels, visualizing DNA bands, and recording results easy, all without any need to remove the gel. Even better, Modern Biology offers this unit at an affordable price that every advanced biology class can afford.
Every experiment kit from Modern Biology contains everything you and your students will need for a hands-on exercise in scientific thinking. There is no need to requisition additional supplies and no worry about part of your order not coming in. Modern Biology provides all the safety-tested reagents and all the reliability-tested supplies your students need in the box.
Every product from Modern Biology is designed with the objective of creating future scientists. Your students will develop the lab skills they need to succeed in future courses, while you have everything you need for teaching the lab all in one place.
Over 80,000 teachers who teach over 500,000 high school and college students across the United States rely on Modern Biology for their lab supplies
Would you like to learn more? Email Modern Biology or call us at (765) 446-4220 Monday through Friday from 9 to 5 Eastern time.