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

Researchers have traditionally used agarose beads for immunoprecipitation (IP). However, there has been a growing trend in recent years favoring the use of magnetic beads. According to a recent survey of 1,013 scientists, 60% of the respondents will start using magnetic technology in the next three years.

There is simply no other way around it. You need to break down the walls (the cell wall, that is) to extract the good stuff. While you can easily accomplish this task when extracting proteins from mammalian cells (they have no cell walls to begin with), it can be more difficult when you are working with plants, yeast, bacteria, fungi and Archaea. These organisms have rigid cell walls that protect the basic cell structure against destructive mechanical forces.

Question:

What protein extraction and isolation accessories are used for sample preparation?

Question:

What are the components of a protein lysis buffer and what are their primary functions?