Quick guide to pouring an agarose gel
  1. weigh agarose, add to flask
  2. measure and add buffer
  3. weigh and record the total weight of the flask
  4. swirl gently
  5. cover flask opening with weigh boat
  6. place in microwave
  7. cook for 45 – 60 s (for mine use high power – which is the default, for a better microwave oven, use medium power)
  8. protecting your hand with a glove, take out flask and swirl contents (watch out for boiling over from superheating)
  9. cook for an additional 45 – 60 s
  10. weigh flask again, bring to starting volume by adding H2O (1 ml H2O per 1 g of lost weight)
  11. tape the ends of the gel tray
  12. run a bead of agarose to seal the tape/tray join (to keep you gel from leaking) – wait about 5 min to let this harden
  13. put a comb in the gel tray
  14. add 0.1 µl of 0.5 mg/ml EtBr per ml of gel (make sure you are wearing gloves)
  15. swirl and pour gel
  16. immediately rinse flask with running water, and place in bucket for wash up
Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License