EC3 Imaging System From UVP

Plain UV tables with a Polaroid camera and cartridges standing in the dark room are quickly moving to the dusty shelves of science history. They are being replaced by transilluminators with roll-out trays, surrounded by a dark box equipped with a viewing window, emission filters and CCD camera, assisted by complex software. This improved replacement is digital and takes images created by chemi- fluoro- or bio-luminescence, and even colorimetry.

I use one of these fancy instruments, namely the EC3 Bioimaging System produced by UVP. My main application is detection, analysis and documentation of a variety of PCR gels, although this system can do much more. It can detect any nucleic acid gel stained with ethidium bromide or SYBR® Green or Gold , as well as proteins stained e.g. with Coomassie blue. Thus, it is good not only for analysis of nucleic acids but also proteins. EC3 Bioimaging Systems can come as a stand-alone instrument, or together with a VisionWorksLS Image Acquisition and Analysis Software and a thermal printer. Although the latter two elements are optional, they actually are very useful and a part of everyday workflow. So, from a practical point of view, these three modules should be seen as a one system. When they are all put together, a very useful, versatile and well-rounded imaging system is created. Each gel can have a “raw” image stored in a database, as well as a zoom-in image of the area of interest. I also routinely print out an image of the gel for hardcopy documentation using a thermal printer. Software allows for fast and easy quantitative and qualitative analysis of gel bands. This is great for documenting or inter-experimental comparisons.

The whole system works pretty well, although it has some glitches. For example, we sometimes experienced the appearance of an unwanted bright circle in the middle of the image, which made image acquisition and analysis impossible. We needed to warm up the apparatus for about half an hour to make it disappear. Sometimes, it is also hard to focus, or the image looks sharp on a screen, but not on the print out. Also, there is a slight delay between adjusting the optics and the adjustment appearing on the computer display, which can be annoying. Despite its occasional problems, the EC3 Bioimaging System also has it’s conveniences, such as its size: It can easily be placed on a bench, thus, alleviating the need for a dark room. Also, it can be used for gels, Northern blots, Western blots, and more. Moreover, it provides convenient image storage and analysis capabilities, allowing for a fast transfer of data from gels/membranes to figures in manuscripts.

In summary, the EC3 Bioimaging System is a versatile must-have of a molecular biology laboratory.