In this technique, the protein samples are separated by length in a jello-like substance called a ‘gel’. Step 1: Protein Gel Electrophoresisīefore a researcher can do Western blotting, the proteins need to be separated in a process called SDS-PAGE (which stands for Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate– PolyacrylAmide Gel Electrophoresis). To learn all that, they might use a molecular technique called a Western blot. Found at: Studying proteinsīiologists who study proteins sometimes want to know how big proteins are, how much of a certain protein is found within a particular cell type or tissue, or how the amounts of certain proteins vary in cells as a response to a drug treatment or disease. Source: Jaclyn Taroni – Childhood Cancer Data lab. In this great cartoon taken from a post written by Jaclyn Taroni on the Childhood Cancer Data Lab blog, DNA is like a cook book with lots of recipes, RNA is one single recipe, proteins are the dishes (and cupcakes!) that are prepared by following the recipes, while cells and tissues consists of many of these prepared dishes. Proteins: globular, folded-up strands of amino acids that are either structural parts of a cell or enzymes that can carry out chemical reactions to make or break down other molecules such as polysaccharides or lipids.It functions as a short-lived, temporary messenger molecule that can copy a piece of the information stored in DNA as a blue print to build new proteins. It has the same shape and information as DNA, but it is made of different molecules. RNA: a single stranded, corkscrew-shaped molecule.Together, the long DNA strands form the genome of an organism. DNA: a double stranded, corkscrew-shaped very long molecule that stores the genetic information.Three basic types of molecules in all living organisms (plants, animals, bacteria etc) are:

(Purists may wish to note that, as there are only three building blocks, there was never any need for an “Eastern Blotting.”) DNA – RNA – Protein In the kind of joke that only scientists would ever dream up, the analysis tools later developed for RNA and proteins were correspondingly given the names “Northern Blotting” and “Western Blotting.” The first of the three to be closely investigated was DNA, using a method devised in 1975 by British molecular biologist Edwin Southern, accordingly becoming known as “Southern Blotting.” Western Blots are a standard laboratory technique used for studying proteins, one of the three basic building blocks of all living organisms. Several readers have asked me to explain what Western blots are, so here is a blog post written with the amazing help of Jon Cousins to provide some insights. Many image problems (duplications, manipulations) in scientific papers are found within Western blots.