Frequently made mistakes in electrophoresis
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 11, 2026

Electrophoretic Separation of Proteins
Published on: June 12, 2008
1GE Healthcare Life Sciences, Oskar-Schlemmer-Strasse 11, D-80807 Munich, Germany. reiner.westermeier@ge.com
Abstract:
In spite of text books, instrument manuals, product instructions, and web tutorials there are a number of erroneous protocols around, which lead repeatedly to issues during electrophoresis runs and to inadequate results. The relatively low resolution and short running time of miniformat systems often conceals these issues. However, in high-resolution 2-D electrophoresis in large format gels, one of the most important separation methods in Proteomics, the consequences of these mistakes become more obvious.
Related Concept Videos
Two-dimensional Gel Electrophoresis
The first dimension separation uses the isoelectric focusing or IEF technique performed on immobilized pH gradient (IPG) strips that separate proteins according to their isoelectric points.
Biological samples, such as cells...
Electrophoresis: Overview
There...
Capillary Electrophoresis: Instrumentation
DNA Agarose Gel Electrophoresis
Gel extraction follows five major steps: running gel electrophoresis to separate fragments, isolating the individual bands, extracting DNA from those bands, and removing the dye and salts from the extracted mixture to obtain pure DNA.
In cloning experiments, both the insert and vector DNA...
SDS-PAGE
A variation of gel electrophoresis, termed polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE), is commonly used for separating proteins according to their molecular size by passing them through a polyacrylamide gel. Because of the varying charges associated with amino acid side chains, PAGE can be used to separate intact proteins...
Capillary Electrophoresis: Applications
Capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) separates ionic components based on their electrophoretic mobility. It has been used to separate proteins, amino acids,...

