FluorChem CCD imaging of a western blot using a typical chemiluminescent substrate.

In May of this year, Alpha Innotech Corp. of San Leandro, Calif., launched ChemiGlow, a luminol-based chemiluminescent substrate kit optimized for use with charge-coupled device (CCD) imaging systems. ChemiGlow represents a new product area for the company known for digital imaging systems such as ChemiImager^™, a real time display CCD camera system for chemiluminescence imaging.

Greg Milosevich, vice president of sales and marketing at Alpha Innotech, explains the strengths of the company's approach to gel documentation and analysis: "CCD-based digital imaging technology provides a wider dynamic range (0-4 OD) than that attainable with film (0-1.8 OD) as well as automation advantages using advanced image acquisition, enhancement, and analysis software tools." However, Alpha Innotech's customers soon found that the chemiluminescent detection protocols they routinely used for film-based systems simply were not optimal for use with CCD...