Gel electrophoresis imager

[Kim]

Hey guys,

I need to get a hold of some blueprints to build a gel imager. I've
got a transilluminator and a digital camera, but I need to build some
kind of semi-permanent structure to hold the 2 together. I'm lucky
enough to have access to a workshop, so plans that involve aluminium/
acryllic/etc would be ideal. Has anyone ever done this before?
Cheers!

Kim

[Bryan Bishop]

On Thu, Jan 29, 2009 at 12:15 PM, Kim <Kim.d...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hey guys,

Hey Kim,

What are the dimensions of your camera and your transilluminator? I'm
thinking that a super cheap gel imager design will just involve a way
to keep the transilluminator and camera aligned properly. I did, in
fact, see something that might be of interest to you on ponoko, an
"iPod-as-a-document-scanner frame/holder-dealy":

http://www.ponoko.com/showroom/kyleakoch/iphone-document-scanner-eps-file-1835

Those plans are free (EPS format). But if you want to spend some money
and just order the parts from Ponoko -- as well as from the uploader
of those files, Kyle has a $20 version:

http://www.ponoko.com/showroom/kyleakoch/iphone-document-scanner-corrugated-board-2088

Back in October 2008, Michael Katsevman wrote a nice python script to
generate designs for gel boxes to send off to the laser cutter (and if
you don't have one available, there's always ponoko, emachineshop,
shapeways, but if you want to go DIY, the diybio-fablab alliance can
surely come in handy).

I see that you mention you do have a workshop available, so consider
that information above for the less privledged members I guess :-).

Katsevman's gel box design generator:
http://groups.google.com/group/diybio/msg/fb0cb0b7d6bf9b35
http://logarchy.org/electrophoresis.py

Ideally, given the dimensions of your transilluminator and the
dimensions of your digital camera, Michael or I could whip up a
program to generate the designs. The parameters would be the different
dimensions.

For future versions, I highly recommend fancy features like built in
ruler/measurement markings, other stuff like that. The gel imager that
I used back in the day wasn't anything fancy though, it worked out ok
but could have been better. For instance, it might be nice to be able
to adjust the height of the camera, or something like that.

Image of a transilluminator:
http://www.biosystematica.com/transilluminator.jpg

Fancy image of a gel imager:
http://www.biosystematica.com/MiniBIS%20Pro%20labelled.jpg

- Bryan
http://heybryan.org/
1 512 203 0507

[Mackenzie Cowell]

Kim, does your imager need a shroud to block light from entering the exposure chamber, or is it just a frame suspending the camera a certain distance from the transilluminator?

Mac