Methods & Technologies

A helpful hint from Derek Lundberg a Postdoc in the Weigal Lab. Derek provides an image reference to balance a Centrifuge without “blanks.”

Assumes equal volumes… = 3-way symmetry; = 2-way symmetry.

If # samples cleanly divisible by 2, use all . If # cleanly div. by 3, do all with .

If neither clean div by 2 or 3, do one group of 3, and fill the rest with balanced pairs of 2.

“BenchFly is the premier science video production platform designed by research and video experts. We provide both open access and private solutions to labs and companies allowing researchers worldwide to communicate via the universal language–video.” Benchfly provides an impressive list of videos demonstrating various scientific methods. http://www.benchfly.com/video-protocols

Once at Benchfly it’s worth a look around, check out the blog, etc.

Protein Simple: An Automated Western Blotting system

Information provided by John Froehlich

Western blotting is an important technique used in cell and molecular biology. By using a western blot, researchers are able to identify specific proteins from a complex mixture of proteins extracted from cells. The technique uses three elements to accomplish this task: (1) separation by size, (2) transfer to a solid support, and (3) marking target protein using a proper primary and secondary antibody to visualize. Unfortunately, traditional western blotting, in general, is tedious to operate, prone to variability and is not very amenable to high throughput strategies. To overcome these shortcomings, the Center for Advanced Algal and Plant Phenotyping (CAAPP) has purchased an automated western blot system, termed Wes™ (Made by Protein Simple: http://www.proteinsimple.com). Specifically, Wes™ (see figure below) that automates the entire western blotting procedure and has several significant advantages over conventional western blotting such as:

All the manual steps are removed thus saving valuable time

Fully analyzed results are ready in just 3-5 hours
Automating the process removes variability, so results are more reproducible run to run, between users and over time.
Since Wes™ doesn’t do a blotting step, protein transfer inconsistencies are eliminated, giving you more quantitative data.
Western protocols can be standardized across users and multiple, global locations

The Wes™ will hopefully be up and running in Room 110 (Plant Biology Building) by mid December or early January 2015. Finally, procedures to use the Wes™ will be established and in place once the Wes™ is up and running thus allowing researchers to incorporate this new technology into their research plans.

Contact: John Froehlich (froehli5@msu.edu) if you have any questions regarding the Wes™ .