how better is 7Cm 2D gel electrophoresis for separation - is anyone doing that? (Oct/12/2009 )

Hi,

I wanted to ask if anyone has run 7cm gels? I was wondering if i run so small gels, whether i'd be able to see some patterns. 7cm is equavalent to small one dimensional electrophoresis:(....if anyone is running these gels, please help me to decide if its worth spending time on this.

Thanks
amj2

It really depends on what you're looking to do. I usually only run 7 cm gels as a precursor to running 24 cm gels to check for protein quality. You'll get much better resolution and separation on a 24 cm gel, which is really what you want for proteomics studies. On the other hand, if you're planning on immunoblotting a 2D gel, a small, 7 cm gel might work fine.