Talk:Western blot
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Westerns are not only used in molecular biology ;-), perhaps "protein chemistry" may be more appropriate (from Hennef, Germany)
How is the word incubate being used here? What keeps the protein of interest from washing away? Why does binding with an antibody make the protein stick to the nitrocellulose membrane?
Western should be written like western, not Western because it does not come from a name like Southern blotting.
- The commericial instructions sitting on my desk say Western is correct. Ladlergo 20:16, 4 April 2006 (UTC)
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[edit] proteins sticking to the membrane
The article says:
The membrane is "sticky" and binds proteins non-specifically
You may have previously seen proteins stuck to surfaces.....maybe blood stains or grass stains. The plastic membranes that are used for a Western blot hold onto the proteins tightly and you do not have to worry about the proteins washing off of the membrane during the antibody steps.
The antibodies have nothing to do with the target protein(s) staying attached to the membrane. The antibodies specifically bind to their target protein by a molecular lock-and-key type of interaction. The antibodies that are used for Western blots typically have a slow rate at which they detatch from their target protein, allowing them to stay attached through the various incubation and rinse steps.
also known as an immunoblot
[edit] er...
For those confused by my edit summary it should read "that I think's most common", but some fool decided to put the apostrophe key next to the enter key! Joe D (t) 16:57, 10 January 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Alan Au Editing
User Alan Au, seems to hate Molecular Station no matter if the pages have quite a lot of information. I believe Alan Au has no idea about bioinformatics or any other molecular biology information. He believes RNA Bioinformatics is not "accepted by the scientific community" and removed my contributions to that page. See Bioinformatics Talk.
Compare these pages: Western Blot
Western Blotting. They both have a lot of information, although one was deleted. See discussion at Alan Au's Editing.
Wikipedia will never be a good resource for scientists, researchers and the general public as we do not have highly educated (Ph.D's, M.Sc's) individuals contributing as many of their contributions are being deleted.
Bioinformin
[edit] Chemiluminescence != fluorescence
Just a quick nitpick... chemiluminescence and fluorecence are not the same thing, although they do have similar photophysical mechanisms. Fluorescence refers to the excitation of a molecule to an excited state, and the subsequent decay by radiative emission from that excited state. Chemiluminescence refers to the situation where a molecule is formed in an excited electronic state as the product of a chemical reaction, and subsequently decays by radiative emission to the ground state. There are a couple of instances in the article where chemiluminescence and fluorescence are mentioned as though they are interchangeable... not a big deal, just thought I'd mention it. -Oli 203.63.0.143 23:36, 11 June 2006 (UTC)
