Amersham Biosciences Hoefer DALT, User Manual, Page: 27 / 70

Hoefer DALT System Unloading the Gel Caster
Amersham Biosciences
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Unloading the Gel Caster
1. Remove the front of the gel caster.
The dense displacing solution will leak out into the tray or drain board beneath the
casting unit.
2. Carefully unload the cassettes from the unit.
Pull forward on the separator sheets to easily separate gels.
3. Quickly rinse the top surface of each gel with water to remove n -butanol and
unpolymerized acrylamide.
4. Wash the cassette glass plates carefully with water and use a dish brush to remove
any acrylamide adhering to the outer surfaces.
As each cassette is washed, place it, hinged-side-up, in a dish rack standing in a
plastic container with about 0.5 cm of tap water in the bottom. The container
retains the excess liquid as it drains from the surface of the gel. The water in the
container helps maintain humidity near the gels. A dry gel breaks and is useless for
electrophoresis.
5. Remove and clean the thin separator sheets.
6. Examine the gels for air spaces, uneven top surfaces or other defects and discard
any unsatisfactory gels.
7. Put the extra good gels in gel storage solution (see page 42) at 4 °C for later use.
Extra gels may also be stored by wrapping the cassettes individually in plastic wrap
and putting them in a sealed plastic box with several milliliters of diluted Tris buffer.
8. Take the foam funnel out of the bottom of the gel caster and rinse with water to
remove displacing solution. Rinse the gel caster and all tubing with water and mild
detergent, followed by a deionized water rinse.