ZOOM™ Equilibration Trays

A possible reason is poor contact between electrodes or incomplete circuit. Make sure that you have added 600 µL deionized water to the Electrode Wicks and the gel is exposed at the anodic and cathodic ends of the cassette. Check the power supply. Be sure to set the “Load Check” to off to enable the power supply to operate at low current.

Find additional tips, troubleshooting help, and resources within our Protein Electrophoresis and Western Blotting Support Center.

Here are the components of the ZOOM IPGRunner Mini-Cell:

ZOOM IPGRunner Core
ZOOM IPGRunner Lid
Gel Tension Wedge
Buffer Dam
Mini-Cell Chamber

Find additional tips, troubleshooting help, and resources within our Protein Electrophoresis and Western Blotting Support Center.

Here are the possible causes and solutions:

*Protein degradation: Add protease inhibitors during sample preparation (see manual for details).
*Different subunits: Use denaturing conditions (8 M urea).
*Incomplete equilibration: Perform equilibration as described in the manual. Increase the equilibration time.
*Protein precipitates: Increase solubilization reagents in the rehydration buffer (see manual for details. Use appropriate strips based on the pI of the protein sample.
*Low protein load: Increase the protein load. You can load up to 400 µg of fractionated protein sample per ZOOM Strip. Use an accurate and sensitive protein estimation method.
*Insensitive detection method: Use sensitive detection methods such as silver staining or immunoblotting.

Find additional tips, troubleshooting help, and resources within our Protein Electrophoresis and Western Blotting Support Center.

Here are the possible causes and solutions:

*Protein has got oxidized: Include DTT in the rehydration buffer and perform the alkylation step.
*Impure solutions: Use ultrapure reagents to prepare the rehydration buffer, equilibration buffer, and buffers for SDS/PAGE.

Find additional tips, troubleshooting help, and resources within our Protein Electrophoresis and Western Blotting Support Center.

Here are the possible causes and solutions:

*Impure solutions: Use ultrapure reagents to prepare the rehydration buffer, equilibration buffer, and buffers for SDS/PAGE.
*Air bubble between the strip and 2D gel: Smooth out the air bubbles.
*Poor strip rehydration: Rehydrate the strips in 140 µL rehydrating buffer for 1 hour as described in the manual. Rehydration can be extended to overnight if you use 155 µL rehydrating buffer. Make sure that the rehydration buffer covers the strip completely.
*Protein overload: Decrease the protein concentration or lower the sample volume.
*Protein precipitates: Increase solubilization reagents in the rehydration buffer (see manual). Use appropriate strips based on the pI of the protein sample. Do not add more than 10 µL of your sample to 140 µL of rehydration buffer (see manual).

Find additional tips, troubleshooting help, and resources within our Protein Electrophoresis and Western Blotting Support Center.