The Protein Man's Blog | A Discussion of Protein Research

Due to its high sensitivity, wide dynamic range, and high signal-to-noise ratio, enhanced chemiluminescence or ECL is considered as one of the most popular detection methods for a variety of western blotting applications in most protein laboratories around the world. This method also proves to be very useful in the quantification of a wide variety of biological materials such as cells, proteins, RNA, DNA, and a host of other analytes.

Protein quantitation or estimation assays are widely used for determining protein concentration and are considered to be one of the most widely used methods in life science research. Estimation of protein concentration is necessary in protein purification, electrophoresis, cell biology, molecular biology, and other research applications.

Among all the protein staining techniques available today, most researchers around the world prefer using Coomassie dyes (also known as Coomassie brilliant blue) in visualizing electrophoresed proteins. There are a number of good reasons why they do. Here are some of them:

Proteins separated by gel electrophoresis can be visualized using different staining procedures, including Coomassie stains, silver stains and fluorescent stains. Among these staining techniques, silver staining undoubtedly offers the highest sensitivity. However, it also involves a complex and relatively time-consuming protocol, has a low linear dynamic range and reproducibility, and is not compatible with mass spectrometry.