DIYbio:Notebook/Open Gel Box 2.0/RFC1: Difference between revisions

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Audience: Who will use the Super gel box?
Audience: Who will use the Super gel box?
1. Bio hackers who want the best gel box. Order a flatpack, similar to IKEA, containing all the necessary pieces, wires, assembly instructions, and a usage protocol. Assemble the box and start running better experiments later that day.
1. Bio hackers who want the best gel box. Order a flatpack, similar to IKEA, containing all the necessary pieces, wires, assembly instructions, and a usage protocol. Assemble the box and start running better experiments later that day.


Revision as of 22:09, 14 December 2008


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Title

Open Gel Box 2.0

Author List

Norman Wang <wangn(at)hawaii.edu>, Mackenzie Cowell <mac(at)diybio.org>, Tito Jankowski <titojankowski@gmail.com>, Jim Hardy <>, Mike Katsevman <>

Purpose

Gel electrophoresis is one of the most basic and commonly used tool for molecular biology. However, the gel electrophoresis apparatus available on the market often lack essential features that would make more pleasant for performing this daily routine. We aim to create a professional grade open and extensible electrophoresis gel box, available as design documents, unassembled, and assembled kits for researchers to obtain and improve upon.

Audience: Who will use the Super gel box?

1. Bio hackers who want the best gel box. Order a flatpack, similar to IKEA, containing all the necessary pieces, wires, assembly instructions, and a usage protocol. Assemble the box and start running better experiments later that day.

2. DIYers eager to make the Super gel box even better. The design is free to download and will be customized by everyone, from the biologist who needs a custom illuminator to the engineer who wants to design it.

3. Teachers and students who need low cost gel electrophoresis equipment. Imagine how a classroom laboratory would change if the equipment were $50 and the experiment took 10 minutes instead of an hour! The community will provide pre-assembled devices where appropriate. Mass production makes more sense when this group gets more involved.

4. Biologists who want a better gel box, but don't want to mess around with assembling it. Much the same as #3

Summary

  • Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License
  • Simple, minimalist design
  • Inexpensive, using off the shelf parts
  • Better features and improvements over electrophoresis gel boxes currently available on market
    • Built In gel casting tray
    • Built In/Swappable excitation light source and corresponding excitation/emission filter
    • Enable in-box gel manipulation by adjustable buffer immersion height

Specification

  1. Open Source Design
    1. Modification of designs are required to be distributed under creative commons license: shared-alike and given proper attribution
    2. To be recognized as "Open Gel Box 2.0", design modifications must be submitted as an RFC following the rules outlined in BBF:RFC0
    3. Simple enough design so anyone with reasonable knowledge of electrophoresis separation can build and improve upon it by having the following
      1. Materials
        1. Acrylic sheets
        2. Acrylic glue
        3. Platinum wire
        4. High voltage wires (red/black)
        5. Electrical connectors
      2. Tools/skills
        1. Acrylic cutting
        2. Acrylic gluing
        3. Pliers
  2. Electrophoresis
    1. Must support separation of molecules: DNA
    2. Must allow using agarose as the separation medium: concentration from 0.8% to 4.0%
    3. Must support/withstand electrophoresis buffers: TAE, TBE, SB, LB, LA
    4. Must allow safe usage of electrophoresis voltages between 0-350V
    5. Must withstand use of stain: EtBr, SYBR Safe
  3. Safety
    1. Must have fool-proof voltage disconnect upon lid removal
    2. Must not allow dangerous levels of offgas & evaporation build-up
  4. Casting
    1. Must support in-box gel casting
    2. Optional multi-gel casting tray (see Modular Extension)
  5. Power Supply
    1. Must use an agreed upon standard (to be determined) electrical connector to the electrophoresis power supply
  6. Must support in-box visualization of stained molecules
    1. Excitation Source
      1. Must have compartment allowing swappable excitation LED module
      2. Must have attachment feature allowing swappable excitation filter
    2. Emission Filtering
      1. Must have attachment feature allowing swappable emission filter
  7. Should allow in-box on-gel DNA manipulation
    1. Band stabbing
    2. Band cutting
    3. Dialysis tube/silica membrane band extraction
  8. Optional Modular Extension
    1. (must/should?) have Camera Mount
    2. (must/should?) have Buffer Cooling Ports
    3. Optional multi-gel casting tray (separate unit)

Methods

  • Excitation Source & Filter Selection
  • Emission Selection

References

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