Rapid (ten-minute) pore-gradient electrophoresis of proteins and peptides in Micrograd gels

Precast gradient gels of short migration length (25 mm) have been developed to provide rapid electrophoretic separation without loss of resolution. These Micrograd gels have been prepared in gel ranges (conventional and unique) to match pore-gradient electrophoresis conditions to proteins/peptides ranging in size from several hundreds to millions. The Hylinx Micrograd gel combines an extreme gel range (6 to 48% polyacrylamide) with a novel crosslinker to provide sieving of polypeptides, and pore-limit electrophoresis of the smallest proteins (e.g. insulin monomer). All gel ranges (such as 3 to 30%) provide zone sharpening in routine analysis of conventional protein mixtures (e.g. serum) within 10 min electrophoresis at 200 to 300 volts. The gels are thin (1 mm) and thus stain quickly, but the gel cassette is of conventional overall width (83 mm), thus fitting many apparatus designs and accommodating 12 samples. The gels are finding valuable use in screening applications, requiring the electrophoretic analysis of many samples, and in cases where a rapid answer is needed, such as monitoring protein purification. The gels have proved particularly useful, in-house, for the latter application in developing Gradipore's new large-scale preparative electrophoresis system, the Gradiflow.