Automating 2-D Gel Electrophoresis

Automating 2-D Gel Electrophoresis Courtesy of Amersham Biosciences Amersham Biosciences www.amershambiosciences.com The Ettan™ proteomics product line includes the Ettan IPGphor™ IEF system and Ettan DALT™ SDS-PAGE system, plus the standalone Ettan Spot Picker, Ettan Digester, and Ettan Spotter. Alternatively, the integrated Ettan Spot Handling Workstation performs spot picking, digestion, and MALDI spotting in an integrated unit. Applied Biosystems www.appliedbiosystems.com Applied Biosystems (ABI), Perkin-Elmer, and Millipore recently entered into a comarketing agreement to offer an integrated, automated proteomics platform consisting of ABI's Proteomics Solutions™ mass spectrometer, PerkinElmer's Multiprobe II automated liquid handler, and Millipore's Montage In-Gel digestion kit. Bruker Daltonics www.bdal.com Bruker Daltonics' PROTEINEER™ line includes the PROTEINEER sp™ automated spot picker and imager, and the PROTEINEER dp™ workstation for in-gel digestion, processing, and MALDI target spotting. Courtesy of Genetix Genetix www.genetix.com Genetix's GelPix robot combines the functionality of a gel imager and spot picker. Genomic Solutions www.genomicsolutions.com The Investigator product line includes a high-throughput first- and second-dimension gel apparatus, the Stack & Stain gel-staining system, the ProPic spot-excision robot, ProGest and ProPrep sample preparation instruments, and the ProMS MALDI spotting robot. Gyros www.gyros.com The Gyrolab MALDI SP1 is a microfluidic CD-like consumable that combines sample cleanup and MALDI spotting functions. Centrifugal force generated by spinning the CD in the Gyrolab Workstation forces peptides through microchannels to the disc's periphery, where they are cleaned, concentrated, and finally eluted onto MALDI targets at the extreme edge of the disk. Special adapters allow users to analyze these samples in Bruker Daltonics MALDI mass spectrometers; collaborations are ongoing with other major MALDI MS suppliers to ensure compatibility. LEAP Technologies www.leaptec.com LEAP's 2D iD gel imaging and spot-cutting workstation uses a vacuum to hold excised gel plugs and positive pressure to eject them. A new "extended" 2D iD with gel-digestion capabilities is currently in beta testing. Millipore www.millipore.com Millipore's ZipTip™ and ZipPlate™ consumables are pipette tips and 96-well plates, respectively, loaded with a bed of chromatography media for peptide concentration and purification. The Montage® In-Gel DigestZP kit, suitable for manual and automated work, contains a ZipPlate plus trypsin and other reagents to perform in-gel digestion and cleanup steps. Currently this kit elutes the purified peptides into a 96-well receiver plate, from which the samples can be spotted to a MALDI target or submitted for electrospray MS analysis. Within the next two months the company is slated to release a "direct spotting" kit so that the MALDI spotting step can occur via vacuum instead of aspiration. PerkinElmer Life and Analytical Sciences www.perkinelmer.com/proteomics PerkinElmer offers the ProXPRESS™ imaging system, the ProXCISION™ gel-cutting robot (manufactured by Genomic Solutions), and a Multiprobe® II proteomics workstation configured to perform in-gel digestion with Millipore's Montage kits. The ProteomeWorks System www.proteomeworkssystem.com A collaboration between Bio-Rad Laboratories and Waters-Micromass MS Technologies, the ProteomeWorks™ system includes the Rotofor® Prep electrophoresis fractionation system, the PROTEAN® IEF Cell, PROTEAN Plus™ Dodeca™ high-throughput second-dimension slab gel units, several imagers, PDQuest™ 2-D gel analysis software, the ProteomeWorks Spot Cutter, and Micromass' MassPREP workstation. Proteome Systems www.proteomesystems.com The ProteomIQ™ platform includes the newly released IsoelectrIQ2 and ElectrophoretIQ3 high-throughput electrophoresis units, ImagepIQ™ imaging software, and BioinformatIQ™ software. A chemical inkjet printer (ChIP) system, still in development, eases the gel-to-MS processing of samples blotted to nitrocellulose membranes, obviating the need for spot cutting. Shimadzu Biotech www.shimadzu-biotech.net Shimadzu offers the Xcise spot-cutting robot. Tecan www.tecan.com Tecan's modular ProTeam™ suite includes the ProTeam FFE--a sample prefractionation instrument--and the ProTeam Digest Workstation, an automated in-gel digestion and MALDI spotting system.

Automating 2-D Gel Electrophoresis

The Scientist Staff

Automating 2-D Gel Electrophoresis

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