Dear Alan and ABI 377 users,
We have had very similar problems running both sequence and Genescan
gels. The main symptom was decreasing signal intensity throught the run.
The help came from a Perkin Elmer technician who found that we were not
using the correct soap. The one to use is ALCOONOX (1%). As a good rule he
said to clean once a while the plates with METHANOL. Since then we are not
encountering such problem anymore.
An other thing that we do and which can help the one who have lots of
samples for fragments analysis to run is to load two sets of 36 samples on
the same gel. To "wash" the gel between your two runs let it run under the
same condition for at least 30 mn and then load your second set of 36
samples. Check that the wells are still usable, sometimes the top of the
gel lose its shape. Check also the buffer level in the tanks. It works
pretty well for us. I have to say that the background noise is higher in
the second gel but we can live with it. We have not try that with
sequences
yet. Any experience of it???
I am sure a lot of people, and in particular me, will be interested by
the users' experience of the glass plates from the suppliers listed in:
James Akowski, akowski at anl.gov
Subject: Re: Has anyone cut their own ABI plates?
Date: 1 Sep 1997 10:59:52 -0700
Best regards
Christian
