Get the Gel Out of Here

Date: March 29, 1999Fragment Purification Products Table Purifying DNA fragments from gels is one of those chores that no one likes to talk about--it's not glamorous, yet it is essential for a functioning molecular biology lab. There are almost as many methods around for doing this as there are researchers. And everyone swears by his or her favorite method. The fact is that probably all methods work to some degree, and most work reasonably well. There are two basic approaches to isolating fragm

Written byLaura Defrancesco

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Date: March 29, 1999

Fragment Purification Products Table

Purifying DNA fragments from gels is one of those chores that no one likes to talk about--it's not glamorous, yet it is essential for a functioning molecular biology lab. There are almost as many methods around for doing this as there are researchers. And everyone swears by his or her favorite method. The fact is that probably all methods work to some degree, and most work reasonably well. There are two basic approaches to isolating fragments, electrophoretic and chemical, and to some extent, it's really a matter of taste in choosing between the two--whether you like to tinker with an electrophoresis apparatus or whether you would rather work in a test tube. For purification of PCR fragments, the more recent advances in this methodology avoid running gels at all, and of course, high throughput systems are becoming more common every day.

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