Re: [DIYbio] Re: gel electrophoresis vs liquid chromatography?

Neat! I didn't consider that the agarose might have been too cool. Here is an image of the device I tried to place agarose into:

I still have it actually, so I could try again with it. It was a piece of silicon with PDMS spin-coated, then laser-etched to form channels (and these channels were investigated with a 2D interferometer, showing the surface was quite rough, not unlike swiss cheese). I think we just pipetted or poured agarose over the channel then smashed a microscope slide on top, then tried to electrophorese some DNA through it. There were a few problems, like the ends didn't have tall reservoirs for buffer, so maybe the buffer boiled away and messed up electrophoresis, but it seemed like the agarose didn't make it into the channel from what we could tell. It's been 3 or 4 years though, so a bit hard to remember. I do remember coming away thinking I needed the top cover sealed so I could inject agarose. Maybe plasma treating the silicone beforehand would have alleviated this, not sure.

 

I wonder if those agarose 'strips' could be used as-is, or with little modification.... add a dimple at one end to place the sample, and run it in a very humid chamber to keep the agarose wet... maybe with some buffer reservoirs at each end.