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Cambridge, UK: Syngene, a world-leading manufacturer of image analysis solutions is delighted to announce its PXi Touch imaging system is being used in a new application by scientists at the UK’s University of Cambridge to visualise multiplex fluorescent and chemiluminescent labelled proteins on the same Western blots. This is contributing to rapidly providing researchers there with more accurate and reproducible results.

Researchers in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Cambridge are using a PXi Touch multi-application imager to analyse proteins on Western blots stained with chemiluminescent and multiplex fluorescent dyes.

Dr Emily Taylor, Laboratory Manager in the Department of Pharmacology commented: “We want to perform multiplex fluorescent Westerns because we can use the same blot to probe for different proteins as we’re looking at proteins ranging 30 kDa to 260 kDa and it is quicker and easier to use just one blot rather than looking at multiple blots for each protein. For this application, we assessed the PXi Touch alongside a laser based scanning system and chose the PXi Touch because the touch screen software is easy to use and the camera is very sensitive.”

Dr Taylor continued: “Since we began using the PXi Touch system, we have discovered that the imaging capability is so good we can interchangeably use multiplex fluorescence and chemi dyes. We now use chemi to detect proteins expressed by our house keeping genes and fluorescence for the proteins of interest. We do this as fluorescence has a better linear range but chemi is more sensitive so we mix and match the two detection methods on the same blot and this is helping us to obtain greater accuracy and reproducibility of results.”

Laura Sullivan, Syngene’s Divisional Manager, stated: “We are excited to hear that our latest imaging technology is being utilised at such a prestigious institute for this novel mixed imaging application. Their research shows scientists that using a PXi Touch means they can work smarter to obtain optimum results, time after time from their Western blots.”