A clearer version of GPC3 Gel permeation chromatography: a technique invented by a pioneering IFR scientist, Richard Synge. It separates large molecules from small ones. Basically, it's like finding your way through a maze that has many different sized paths. The column is packed with little gel particles. The gaps between the particles are relatively wide, but the gel itself has a much larger number of tiny pores than the gaps. This means that smaller molecules take longer to get through the gel 'maze' because even if they are running quickly through the wide gaps at many points they get forced into the tiny gel pores which the larger molecules won't fit into. Size separation occurs because the number and length of routes each molecule takes depends entirely upon their size which determines how they fit into the range of pore sizes in the gel. The two coloured bands that develop in this movie show separation of a mixture of a fluorescently tagged protein (which is much larger) racing ahead of the remaining tiny fluorescent dye molecules that haven't attached to the protein. The free dyes weave though many more tiny pores than the proteins, hence they fall behind far enough that the clear gap develops. A very neat technique, there are literally billions of each molecule...imagine having to separate them by hand!

• published: 09 Sep 2014
• views: 13