Team:HKUST-Rice/DIY gel imaging system
DIY Gel imaging system
Why Gel imaging is important to synthetic biology?
Gel electrophoresis one of the most essential tool in biology, it is an essential part for restriction diagnostic test for nucleic acid, resolving PCR products, etc. Having a gel imaging tool in proximity can increase the productivity of the lab. In our case, since the closest gel imaging tools is far away from HKUST iGEM lab, we decided to build a Gel imaging system for our own use, using simple and easy to get material.
Material for DIY Gel imaging system
The DIY Gel imaging system mainly consist of five parts:
- UV trans-illuminator
- Color filter
- Camera
- Case
- Computer with monitor for live viewing of Gel
We got our UV trans-illuminator as a donation from the life science department in HKUST. We ordered the set of color filters for XXX dollars from Taobao, an online shopping website. We purchased camera from local hardware store for XXX dollars. We built the case using XXX material, with the help of XXX, for XXX dollars. We connect the camera to our lab computer through a XXX cable for live viewing of the gel using digiCamControl software, which is an open source software. The total cost of the DIY gel imaging system is XXX dollars.