Gel Electrophoresis - History

History

  • 1930s – first reports of the use of sucrose for gel electrophoresis
  • 1955 – introduction of starch gels, mediocre separation
  • 1959 – introduction of acrylamide gels; disc electrophoresis (Ornstein and Davis); accurate control of parameters such as pore size and stability; and (Raymond and Weintraub)
  • 1969 – introduction of denaturing agents especially SDS separation of protein subunit (Weber and Osborn)
  • 1970 – Laemmli separated 28 components of T4 phage using a stacking gel and SDS
  • 1975 – 2-dimensional gels (O’Farrell); isoelectric focusing then SDS gel electrophoresis
  • 1977 – sequencing gels
  • late 1970s – agarose gels
  • 1983 – pulsed field gel electrophoresis enables separation of large DNA molecules
  • 1983 – introduction of capillary electrophoresis

A 1959 book on electrophoresis by Milan Bier cites references from the 1800s. However, Oliver Smithies made significant contributions. Bier states: "The method of Smithies ... is finding wide application because of its unique separatory power." Taken in context, Bier clearly implies that Smithies' method is an improvement.

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