AN ALTERNATIVE to ethidium bromide which is said to be more flexible in use as well as being safe and sensitive has been introduced by Cleaver Scientific.
RunSafe under UV, showing plasmid (left) and PCR products (right)
The company describes RunSafe as a significant new tool for gene cloning applications, enabling scientists to see their samples separate in real time.
This new non-mutagenic fluorescent reagent gives immediate visualisation of DNA bands when gels are illuminated with blue or UV light, acting as a combined loading dye and a DNA stain.
This dual function reduces the environmental impact as well as improving speed, convenience, and economy. RunSafe complies with Clean Water Act standards, says Cleaver, meaning that no expensive waste management is required.
RunSafe is supplied in 6x DNA loading buffer, and can be used to prepare DNA markers and samples for loading on agarose or polyacrylamide gels. This highly-sensitive stain for detecting double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) contains three tracking dyes (Bromophenol Blue, Xylene Cyanol FF, and Orange G) for visual tracking of DNA migration during electrophoresis.