Running Western blots is a central theme for many researchers. Any system that improves the quality of Western blotting and makes the protocol easier can increase the productivity of the lab. The quality of Western blots may depend on a number of factors such as the quality of a protein extract, the specificity of the antibody used and a slew of other factors. With the XCell SureLock gel chamber, you can stop worrying about diffuse bands or many other issues that are common to homemade gels.
The system itself is easy to use and very simple in design. It can run two gels together or one gel at a time with the help of an included “dam”. Instead of having four clamps for each gel there is a tension wedge that holds the gels in place. This makes for a good seal almost every time and helps remove clutter. I do, however, recommend watching the gel for a few minutes to make sure that the gaskets are not leaking. To prevent any leaks, make sure that the gel is all the way in before adding buffer to the upper buffer chamber (the space between the gels).
As far as I can tell, there are only a few downsides to the system. For one, you cannot use just any gel casts with the XCell SureLock. You either have to purchase precast gels or purchase non reusable gel molds that must be cracked open to recover the gel. Unfortunately, Invitrogen does not have a reusable alternative to their gel casting system that can be used with the XCell Surelock chamber. Running the precast gels can get expensive and produces plastic waste. In order to cut the cost of running gels, I would recommend using the gel molds for diagnostics and quality control of protein samples and antibodies and running their precast gels for publication quality blots.
I have been using this system for about two years. Because of the relative ease of use and relatively short run times, I run on average of 4 gels a day. I typically run whole cell lysates and samples from column fractionations and the proteins we typically evaluate are in the 40-200 kD range.
Overall, this system provides a quick and easy way to run highly reproducible protein gels with very clean and narrow bands. The diversity of precast gels that are available makes this system very versatile. I have been using the 4-12% bis-tris gels (NuPAGE® Novex 4-12% Bis-Tris Gel 1.0 mm, 10 well) for proteins in the 150 to 200 Kd range. I would also recommend having either another system that runs non precast gels or purchasing the empty cassettes to make troubleshooting less expensive.
Research Specialist
Institute of Integrative Genomics
Princeton University