Researchers in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Cambridge are using a GeneGnome dedicated chemiluminescence imager to analyze proteins on Western blots stained with SuperSignal or ECL™. The information from the blots is helping to determine how the receptor proteins are regulated and its aim is to lead to a better understanding of the role of receptor proteins in aspects of cellular activity as varied as programmed cell death and muscle contraction.
Dr Emily Taylor, Laboratory Manager in the Department of Pharmacology commented: “We have had the GeneGnome for seven years and we chose to install this system because we knew Syngene had a good reputation for service. Since the GeneGnome only does one thing, it is easy to operate and even when you have different sized blots, it will automatically focus the blot image for you. We have detected large membrane proteins of 260 KDa and visualized nanogram amounts of protein, so it has plenty of sensitivity for our work.”
Laura Sullivan, Syngene’s Divisional Manager, added: “We are delighted to see our GeneGnome contributing to an understanding of protein expression in cell signaling. Having scientists at a top pharmacology department use our GeneGnome so regularly for seven years is a testament to the system’s robust, reliable performance.”
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About Syngene
Syngene is a world-leading supplier of integrated imaging solutions for analysis and documentation of gel-based information. Syngene’s systems are used by more than 10,000 research organizations and over 50,000 individual scientists world-wide and include many of the world’s top pharmaceutical companies and major research institutes.
Syngene, founded in 1997 is a division of the Cambridge based Synoptics Group. The Group’s other divisions, Syncroscopy and Synbiosis, specialize in digital imaging solutions for microscopy and microbial applications respectively. Synoptics currently employs over 40 people in its UK and subsidiary operation in Frederick, USA.
About the Department of Pharmacology
With 22 independent research groups, 50 research workers, 50 research students and 30 technical and support staff, the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Cambridge is the largest of its kind in the UK. The over-arching theme of research in the Department is to discover the fundamental mechanisms which underlie important problems in Pharmacology. Major research areas of the Department include cellular neuroscience (six research groups), systems neuroscience (three groups), cell signaling (four groups), ion and drug transport mechanisms (5 groups), biomolecular imaging using atomic force microscopy (two groups) and vascular biology (two groups).
