Quantify a protein gel with CS4

[Owen_...@adobeforums.com]

Hi,

I just purchased CS4 Extended. I originally got it to work on all my photos of vacations, National Parks etc. that I have saved over the years. I am completly new to photoshop so if there are any good tutorials of your favourite photo enhancements, please send them to me. I would like to do some black and white images with some coloured elements; any help with this would be much appreciated.

However, I am interested in using CS4 for my work. I am a scientist and I generate a lot of SDS-PAGE gels. These are acrylamide gels stained with comassie blue. Basically the proteins in a sample are separated into various bands of different sizes. The bands are stained blue, the more protein the bluer the band. I will send an example if anyone is interested. I was wondering if I could use photoshop to quantify the bands so I can say 'this band contains x grams of protein' as the samples are run with known standards.

Thank you in advance,

Owen

[Geoff_K...@adobeforums.com]

There are millions of Photoshop tutorials to be found on the web and in books, some are good some are not so good. A good place to start is the extra DVD that comes with CS4, then have a look on the Adobe site, especially tv.adobe.com where you will find video tutorials. You will also learn a lot by reading this forum.

I can't help with your second question, do a search on Google for "SDS-PAGE gels photoshop".

Geoff

[Lawrenc...@adobeforums.com]

Do you know the spectrum of that particular blue? If it is controllled, you may be able to use the Histogram, although unfortunately, the vertical scale isn't calibrated (AFAIK). You can get a look at the distribution curve in any case.

Extended should have some additional tools, but i don't have extended to say anything more.

[Russell...@adobeforums.com]

<http://www.lukemiller.org/journal/2007/08/quantifying-western-blots-without.html>