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Updated: May 23, 2026

The Fastest Western in Town: A Contemporary Twist on the Classic Western Blot Analysis
Published on: February 5, 2014
Soymilk: an effective and inexpensive blocking agent for immunoblotting
Charitha Galva1, Craig Gatto, Mark Milanick
1School of Biological Sciences, Illinois State University, Normal, IL 61790, USA.
Abstract:
Blocking efficacy of whole soymilk, nonfat soymilk, SuperBlock, and nonfat milk was evaluated by performing standard protein immunoblotting procedures on both purified protein and crude nuclear extracts from HEK 293 cells. Nonfat soymilk was found to have superior blocking efficacy compared with other blocking agents in terms of high signal-to-noise ratio with the shortest blocking times. In addition, the presence of low concentrations of the detergent Tween 20 (0.05-0.1%, v/v) in the wash buffer as well as antibody incubations significantly lessened the background compared with including only the detergent during wash steps.
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