One of the most common needs of any molecular biology lab is some type of gel electrophoresis unit. Owl Separation Systems specializes in all types of horizontal and vertical electrophoresis and electroblotting systems and reagents. These systems come in various sizes to meet all of your DNA/RNA/protein separation needs. The system that I have been using for several years is the Spider™ system. I love using it and have never had any issues with the system.
The setup of the system is similar to any electrophoresis unit. There is a gel box that is filled with buffer, with a lid that can be opened and closed to start the run. The system plugs into a power supply, which can be adjusted for the desired voltage or current. In order to pour the agarose gels, there is a gel loading cassette into which the UV transparent gel tray is placed. There are multiple combs that can be purchased depending on the size and amount of sample to be loaded. The combs that I have allow for 20, 30 or 48 samples to be loaded. There are two slots for combs, so a higher throughput can be achieved as DNA can be loaded into the upper and lower combs. This will reduce the migration length of the gel, however, so it is necessary to ensure the upper samples do not migrate into the lower gel loading wells. The ethidium bromide can be added to the agarose directly or into the running buffer (I use TE for my buffer). The gel tray fits directly into the gel box system.
One of my favorite features about this system is the combs that can be used with the multi-loading pipettors. These save a lot of time and cut back on pipettor stress. I usually load about 20 ul of sample on the gel, although thicker gels (I pour 100 ml) can be poured if a larger sample volume is needed. One of the drawbacks of the system is the way the gels are cast. The gel loading trays have rubber seals on the ends which seal with the cassette loading tray. However, they will occasionally leak if the seal is not tight enough. After some time, the rubber tends to wear down and the gel trays don’t seal as tightly anymore. I have also chipped some of the plastic from the gel trays which can also affect the sealing of the gels. The trays can be reordered, though, and aren’t very expensive. Another drawback is the fact that I occasionally forget to turn off the system and run the sample off the gel, but that is more of a problem with the power system than the gel system (i.e. it doesn’t have a timer); there are several power boxes available now with programmed stop times.
Owl Separation Systems offers several new systems that offer features such as recirculation of the buffer to help prevent uneven migration of bands and maintain pH, large systems that have multiple combs and allow for high throughput of samples, and small systems that offer speed and less hassle. I have been happy with my Spider™ system and would recommend it to anyone looking for a basic gel electrophoresis unit.
Research Associate
Department of Ophthalmology
University of California, San Francisco