Purchasing a Gel Documentation System

Also known as gel doc or gel imaging system, gel documentation is yet another example of technology aiding medicine. It is commonly used in molecular biology for documenting nucleic acid and protein polyacrylamide or agarose gels that are stained with ethidium bromide or other flurophores like SYBR Green. Gel documentation systems are now a part and parcel of any highly developed and advanced medical laboratories of today.The gel documentation system has travelled far ahead of what it was in the 1980s and 1990s with the corresponding developing of medical technology. Earlier, it involved just a Polaroid print camera based on top of an inverted pyramid. It was placed over a gel and the image was taken, which was neither sufficient to conduct a detailed study of the part taken nor clear enough to take photographs of minute DNA and protein gels.Today’s gel docs are a far cry from all that rigmarole. What the gel documentation system comprises today is excitation and detection systems that are controlled by computers, multifunctional enclosures and software that enable a detailed study and analysis of the image taken and recorded. They are either semi or fully automated and can handle a range of items from DNA and protein gels to highly complicated autoradiography.Today if you planning to purchase a gel documentation system you would find different types based on its scope and functionality. The price range also would differ based on that. You could find systems to get images and documentation of just the DNA and protein gels or the more advanced ones that would handle items like chemiluminescent Western blots, fluorescence and autoradiography. The quality of the camera and its lenses, the software that comes with the system and the level of automation it provides are also criteria for determining the cost of the system.A really advanced gel documentation system would allow even a beginner to take pictures without any difficulty. Most of the steps would be automated, but it would still let the user choose the brightness and zoom of the picture he or she wants to take. Sometimes you would find that some brands offer the system with the analysing software as an additional option whereas some would include everything, of course at a higher price. Analysing software would help you in studying the picture taken in detail, thus offering additional facilities within the system.When you are out to buy the gel documentation system it is better to get advice and suggestions from someone, especially if you are new to biomedical technology. Get a quality system and you could suddenly