So, for the diffuser we used Solacryl, which is a clear UV-transmissive acrylic (1/8" thick). We then use a hand-held sander to sand both sides of the material. After sanding, give the materail a rinse in water and this makes a pretty good UV-transmissive diffuser.

You can search online for Solacryl material. In my experience it is not that expensive, but you will have to buy a sheet and cut it to the size you need. We have bought our Solacryl sheets from a company called Loop Acrylics in the US. You can contact them by email at acrylicsbyloop@gmail.com. I hope that helps !

@rtapilan

Thank you for your question. At this time we don't conduct teacher training workshops. However, we are always available to help and answer questions from individuals regarding using the colorimeter or any of our other products.

@brentmarble3

Hi, I read through your message and I'm wondering whether this is a general question about gel electrophoresis or whether you are having trouble with your electrophoresis equipment. Are you using our IO Rodeo gel box and electrophoresis power supply ? It doesn't seem from your message to be an equipment problem, but more a problem with a new loading dye that you are using ? If that is the case, you might be better off asking the manufacturer of the loading dye whether you should expect to see you DNA sample behave differently in their buffer. I'm sorry I haven't used the GoTaq loading dye.
I hope that helps. Good luck with your PCR experiments and let us know if you have any specific questions about our electrophoresis equipment.
Jo

Hi Greg,
Thank you for your kind words about our work and for reaching out ! We will definitely take a look at the openhardware.science website, thanks. Your work sounds very cool, and we would love to chat further. We sent you a message on here so look for that and hopefully we can connect and chat soon !
Best,
Jo

Hi Fiona,
We have looked into UV LEDs in the past for ethidium bromide, but unfortunately they are just too expensive.
I have not tried to do a sensitivity comparison for blue light vs. UV light for viewing ethidium bromide gels. I think that probably using a UV transilluminator will be the best option for ethidium bromide gels. We have made UV transilluminators in the past and have some instructions here: http://public.iorodeo.com/docs/uv_transilluminator/. We no longer sell the kit but maybe you can find something useful from the instructions. Otherwise, maybe you can find a supplier of inexpensive UV transilluminators.
Sorry we could not be more helpful.
Best,
Jo

Hi,
We used the white light transilluminator with this Biotium DNAzure blue DNA stain:
https://biotium.com/product/dnazure-blue-nucleic-acid-gel-stain/

I could imagine that this combination would work well in, for example, a classroom or educational setting as it doesn't require a dark room. I also did like that you can dry the gels and keep them which might be handy.

Other uses for the white light box might be for imaging Coomassie stained gels, for example.

However, I would recommend using the blue LED transilluminator for dyes such as GreenView, SYBRSafe etc.

At this time I haven't carried out a comparison of the sensitivity of the two dyes and transilluminators. You can find more information on the sensitivity of DNAzure on the Biotium link above.

I hope that helps !
Jo

Hi,
We recently posted a blog where we measured the amber filter transmission. Here is the blog post: https://iorodeo.com/blogs/news/measuring-emission-spectra-for-the-blue-led-transilluminator

Below is a zoomed in version of the %Transmission graph so you can more clearly see transmission in the wavelengths of 400-550 nm.

The % transmission at 480 nm and 510 nm is about 1%. Transmission doesn't start to increase until around 525 nm approx.

So, this would probably not work for eGFP unfortunately.

Below are some images of the green LED transilluminator we designed for a custom application using the superbright green LEDs I mentioned earlier. The enclosure is the same as the blue version, we just swap the 470 nm LED for the superbright green LED. A diffuser and green filter is placed over the LEDs as I mentioned.

The red viewing filter that sits above the LED board is actually a thin film Roscolux #26 filter which we laser cut.

Because it is thin, we have to support it. We can do this using a black frame.

Let me know what you think and whether this would work for your application.

We would be able to ship approx. a week after ordering. The lead-time would be on purchasing the LEDs from Superbright. Once we receive the LEDs we would ship 1-2 days later. The cost would be $225 for the fully assembled version with the 18V power supply. So it would be ready to use. I can send you a formal quote if you want to send me an email with your shipping info to jo@iorodeo.com.

Yes, we can make custom LED boards for the LED transilluminator. You do want to find an LED that has a wide-viewing angle though. The one you have listed from Superbright has a 15 degree viewing angle, and we usually use LEDs with a 120 degree viewing angle. This will allow more uniform lighting. With the small viewing angle you can end up with bright spots.

We have made boards with this 530 nm LED from Superbright in the past: https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/through-hole/5mm-green-led-120-degree-viewing-angle-flat-tipped-1600-mcd/270/1197/

The actual spectra from this LED shows a peak at 518 nm so that might work ? If I recall correctly we used this in combination with a green acrylic filter (in place of the blue) and a red filter above the gel. I haven't tested with GelRed, but I think this could work.

Hi Gosia,
Yes, we can do that, no problem.
Send an email to me with your order details and shipping address to jo@iorodeo.com and we will get that to you.
Thanks,
Jo