dna seq-electrical hazard
Allison Pinder (pinder@mail1.ciwemb.edu)
17 Aug 1999 09:05:28 -0400
Tom- I'm sure we've all seen ocasional buffer leakage and the arcing it can
cause on the 377. In my case, the worst damage I've seen wasn't quite as
severe as you described but it did destroy the read region of the gel and left
scorch marks on the glass plates and the white plate behind them. As you
noted, there is no safety feature to stop the flow of current in such a case
and this is a potential hazard. Heat buildup is enormous.
OK, it would be great if this safety feature existed but it doesn't. So, I
took a somewhat more pragmatic approach and began to routinely seal the
corners of all gels with a drop of molten 1% agarose. It hardens almost on
contact and prevents buffer leaks due to wicking, overfilling, and poor gel
"ear" formation, etc. If you can reduce the number of times leakage occurs
then you can save yourself a lot of hassle. Hope this helps.
Allison Pinder
DNA Sequencing Core Facility
Dept of Embryology
Carnegie Institution of Washington
115 W. University Parkway
Baltimore, MD 21210
410 554-1207
pinder@mail1.ciwemb.edu