Talk:Western blot

Westerns are not only used in molecular biology ;-), perhaps "protein chemistry" may be more appropriate (from Hennef, Germany)

How is the word incubate being used here? What keeps the protein of interest from washing away? Why does binding with an antibody make the protein stick to the nitrocellulose membrane?

Western should be written like western, not Western because it does not come from a name like Southern blotting.

The commericial instructions sitting on my desk say Western is correct. Ladlergo 20:16, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

proteins sticking to the membrane

The article says:

The membrane is "sticky" and binds proteins non-specifically

You may have previously seen proteins stuck to surfaces.....maybe blood stains or grass stains. The plastic membranes that are used for a Western blot hold onto the proteins tightly and you do not have to worry about the proteins washing off of the membrane during the antibody steps.

The antibodies have nothing to do with the target protein(s) staying attached to the membrane. The antibodies specifically bind to their target protein by a molecular lock-and-key type of interaction. The antibodies that are used for Western blots typically have a slow rate at which they detatch from their target protein, allowing them to stay attached through the various incubation and rinse steps.

also known as an immunoblot

er...

For those confused by my edit summary it should read "that I think's most common", but some fool decided to put the apostrophe key next to the enter key! Joe D (t) 16:57, 10 January 2006 (UTC)

Alan Au Editing

User Alan Au, seems to hate Molecular Station no matter if the pages have quite a lot of information. I believe Alan Au has no idea about bioinformatics or any other molecular biology information. He believes RNA Bioinformatics is not "accepted by the scientific community" and removed my contributions to that page. See Bioinformatics Talk.

Compare these pages: Western Blot

Western Blotting. They both have a lot of information, although one was deleted. See discussion at Alan Au's Editing.

Wikipedia will never be a good resource for scientists, researchers and the general public as we do not have highly educated (Ph.D's, M.Sc's) individuals contributing as many of their contributions are being deleted.

Bioinformin

Chemiluminescence != fluorescence

Just a quick nitpick... chemiluminescence and fluorecence are not the same thing, although they do have similar photophysical mechanisms. Fluorescence refers to the excitation of a molecule to an excited state, and the subsequent decay by radiative emission from that excited state. Chemiluminescence refers to the situation where a molecule is formed in an excited electronic state as the product of a chemical reaction, and subsequently decays by radiative emission to the ground state. There are a couple of instances in the article where chemiluminescence and fluorescence are mentioned as though they are interchangeable... not a big deal, just thought I'd mention it. -Oli 203.63.0.143 23:36, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Consistency?

From the Southern blot article: "As the technique was eponymously named, Southern blot should be capitalised, whereas northern and western blots should not."

--Gycklaren 10:48, 27 May 2007 (UTC)

The CDC page on writing style says that capitalized Western blot is the preferred. I'm sure one can make arguments for or against capitalizing, but usually style should conform to one standard and the CDC is a good enough authority. Calgirl2 (talk) 18:20, 29 November 2007 (UTC)

Article picture

The picture on the right seems to be missing? --David Munch 13:20, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

Protocol section

Please contribute links to the protocol section. Pages that describe common molecular/biochemical techniques will benifit if we make an effort to add links to the best protocols. What do other people think?

Capitalization

Should it be "western blot" or "Western blot"? Strictly speaking "western blot" does not seem to be a proper noun. However, the CDC journal of style (http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/style_guide_p2.htm) supports using a capital W in "western." I've seen it written both ways in both scientific articles and prose. Science, the premiere American science magazine, uses a capital W and Nature, the premiere British one, uses lowercase. Thoughts?12.144.50.194 (talk) 17:55, 21 February 2008 (UTC)