Re: [DIYbio] Gel Red questions

On Tuesday, March 12, 2013 at 12:03:42 PM UTC-7, Nathan McCorkle wrote:

Yeah, that's why big companies and universities don't switch.

EtBr is molecularly known (no one really knows exactly what the gelRed
and sybrSafe molecules are, we know what classes they're in or one
that was described in one patent, etc)

I'm pretty sure that this information cannot be kept secret.  To obtain a chemistry patent, and to publish an accurate MSDS, the structure of the novel active compound must be known and disclosed.

I remember that SybrSafe is in the cyanine dye family, a descendant of Thiazole Orange.  If you look at the Wikipedia article for SybrSafe, a structure is published, and it sure looks like a cyanine dye to me.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SYBR_Safe

 

Wikipedia entries are also available for GelGreen and GelRed.  They look like acridine orange and ethidium dimers, respectively, with a peptide-ether linker between the individual fluorophores.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GelGreen

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GelRed

The idea of making ethidium dimers is not new.  An ethidium dimer was available in 1990.  It's still available.  The linker differs from the GelRed linker, but otherwise the two molecules are quite similar.

https://www.thermofisher.com/order/catalog/product/E1169