Analysis and development of scanners for electrophoresis

Abstract

The thesis explored possibilities of adapting existing commercial flatbed scanners by implementing optical designs and electronic control schemes to evaluate polyacrylamide gels and explore the chances of it replacing laser densitometer. Various simulations were done based on Gaussian illumination model of different light source to understand the underlying mechanisms of light interaction to Coomassie blue-stained polyacrylamide gel samples. The samples were also scanned using Photoshop in different ways and light source with modified Epson Perfection 1650 Photo flatbed scanner and Bio-Rad GS800 Imaging Densitometer. Resultant images were processed using MATLAB and quantified using The Discovery Seriesa?? Quantity OneA? by Bio-Rad. Besides that, diode laser module was also used to emulate actual laser densitometer for sample densitometry comparison. Limitations of concentration range of Coomassie blue-stained protein were also studied to determine whether adapted commercial flatbed scanner is an economical solution to replace laser densitometer in densitometry of Coomassie blue-stained polyacrylamide gel. Three publications are associated with this work.