A Faster Way to Separate Proteins with Electrophoresis

A new running buffer is designed for use at higher voltages than traditional buffers, providing gradient-like electrophoretic separations of protein samples in nearly one-third less time and with a broad molecular weight separation range.

The new Fisher BioReagents FastRun Tris SDS PAGE Running Buffer provides comparable or better resolution and an increased molecular weight separation range of proteins when compared to traditional Tris-Glycine-SDS buffer. The new buffer system also reduces the number of Tris-Glycine polyacrylamide gel compositions required to resolve a protein, saving researchers time and money.

“For more than 40 years, the same buffer system has been used with Tris-Glycine polyacrylamide gels for high-resolution fractionation of protein mixtures,” said Stephen C. Roemer, Ph.D., director of product development at Thermo Fisher Scientific. “The traditional buffer system can be limiting for researchers because of the long run times and low voltage limits. The new Fisher BioReagents FastRun Tris SDS PAGE Running Buffer is the first major breakthrough in this space in decades because of its ability to be used at higher voltages.”

Tris-Glycine mini-gels (precast or home-made) prepared with the conventional buffer system are typically run at 125 V. The buffer system heats up at high voltages, which in turn heats the gel, resulting in a breakdown of the protein bands and loss of resolution. The Fisher BioReagents FastRun buffer can be run at a higher voltage (200 V recommended) because it does not generate excessive heat. The result is a significant improvement in run times. In an example, gels run with the new buffer system took only 25 minutes, compared to 90-minute run times with the traditional reagents.

Fisher BioReagents FastRun buffer is compatible with standard Tris-Glycine polyacrylamide gels (precast or home-made) and with all commercially available protein electrophoresis tanks.