Bio-rad Laboratories, Inc.

Timothy E Delony

Daniel Y Chu

James F Monthony

Eric G Wallace

Gregory Kushner

James R Gangwer

Walter H Schick

Slab gels are cast in a gel enclosure which consists of a flat rectangular plate held against a larger plate by a flexible sealing sheet with a removable edge. The smaller plate is retained within raised edges along three sides of the larger plate and rests on a pair of shoulders along two of the raised edges. The sealing sheet spans all three raised edges and the smaller plate resting between them, thereby sealing three sides of the chamber between the plates, the width of the chamber being established by the shoulders. One edge of the sealing sheet is removable to expose the lower end of the gel slab to a buffer solution to permit the performance of an electrophoretic separation in the enclosure once the gel has been formed. A depression in the raised edge underlying the removable edge of the sealing sheet increases the access of a buffer solution to the lower end of the gel slab during electrophoresis.

Apparatus and method for gel casting and electrophoresis in a single

An electrophoresis cell assembly is disclosed which accommodates one or more vertically oriented gels of either slab or tube geometry held in a lateral enclosure attachable to a U-shaped frame to form a liquid-tight upper buffer chamber surrounding the upper end of the gel. Mated features on the gel enclosure and the frame permit one to slide the enclosure up against the frame into pivotal contact therewith, and to then lock the enclosure into position against the frame, sealing the buffer chamber thus formed around the upper end of the gel, all done in one simple movement. The design overcomes problems in both sealing and assembly, and provides a reliably sealed construction which may be combined with other pieces of equipment normally used in electrophoretic separations to provide a complete cell. The entire construction can be assembled and disassembled with unusual ease.

Apparatus for vertical gel electrophoresis

A novel device for clamping together a sandwich-type gel slab plate assembly includes an elongate housing having a recess on one side and two movable bars placed parallel to each other inside the recess. Due to a series of angled parallel surface segments on the lateral edges of the bars and one side wall of the recess, a vertical force against one bar translates into a lateral force against the other, urging the latter toward the other side wall of the recess, clamping the plates in between with even force along the entire length.

End clamp for gel slab plate assembly

Electrophoresis apparatus having a housing, a substantially horizontal cooling bed within the housing for supporting and cooling a medium during electrophoresis, a transparent cover overlying the bed, and first and second electrode troughs along opposed sides of the bed. A condenser coil has an open central area greater than the area of the bed and overlies the bed with the open area located above a vertical projection of the bed. Major segments of the condenser coil overlie the electrode troughs. The condenser coil and the cooling bed are arranged for serial fluid flow with coolant fluid introduced into the condenser coil and withdrawn from the cooling bed. The cooling bed itself has first and second generally parallel plates spaced apart by a core which defines a tortuous path for fluid flow. One of the plates has a higher thermal conductivity than the other. By inverting the cooling bed, differing cooling rates can be achieved. Electrode wires within the electrode troughs are connected at diagonally opposite ends to a DC power supply to eliminate nonuniformities in the electric potential from one end of the medium to the other.

Electrophoresis apparatus

Electrophoretic gels are destained between two layers of ion exchange resin. Electrical current is passed from one layer of resin to the other through the gel in an electrically low-conductive surrounding medium such as de-ionized water. Virtually all of the current goes through the gel resulting in the highly efficient destaining technique.

Growing community of inventors

San Leandro, CA, United States of America

Timothy E Delony