Synthetic hydrogels were utilized to explore influence of both charge and phenylalanine-glycine (FG) repeat concentration on translocation of select proteins. Hydrogels studied represent a biomimetic platform of the nuclear pore complex (NPC) found in eukaryotic cells. Polyacrylamide/phenylalanine-serine-phenylalanine-glycine (FSFG) peptide copolymers have previously demonstrated similar select...

The detection of oligoclonal bands of IgG in cerebrospinal fluid by isoelectric focusing is a useful aid in the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. At present, this test is performed on polyacrylamide gels which are technically very difficult to prepare and are not suitable for the routine laboratory. A technique is described for isoelectric focusing on thin layer agarose gels which permits oligoc...

Compressed and stretched polyacrylamide hydrogels previously have been shown to offer a robust method for aligning proteins. A simple, funnel-like apparatus is described for generating uniformly stretched hydrogels. For prolate-shaped proteins, gels stretched in the direction of the magnetic field yield two-fold larger alignment than gels compressed to the same aspect ratio in this direction. E...

The mechanical characteristics of ionic-covalent entanglement hydrogels consisting of combinations of the biopolymers gellan gum and kappa-carrageenan, and the synthetic polymers polyacrylamide and an epoxy amine were investigated. Compression testing showed that these gels exhibited "double network" behavior, i.e. strong tough gels.

Physical entrapment was used as an approach to achieve thermal stabilization of enzymes. The t 1/2 values for the thermoinactivation of glucose oxidase and glucoamylase were increased several-fold by their entrapment in polyacrylamide gels. In polyacrylate gels the individual enzymes behaved differently, probably owing to microenvironmental effects arising by the polyelectrolyte nature of the c...

A mass spectrometry compatible silver staining method for protein incorporating a new silver sensitizer in sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide electrophoresis gels