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Design, Fabrication and Characterization of Low Cost Indigenous Gel

Documentation System

Conference Paper · April 2011

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 National Conference on Converging Technologies beyond 2020, (CTB-2020), April 6, 7, 2011
International Journal of Applied Engineering Research, ISSN 0973-4562 Vol.6 No.5 (2011)

Design, Fabrication and Characterization of Low

Cost Indigenous Gel Documentation System
1
Sanjeev Bhardwaj, 2Joginder Singh, 3Swati Dahiya, 4C.C. Tripathi4
1,2,3
Department of Biotechnology Engineering, University Institute of Engineering and Technology Kurukshetra University,
Kurukshetra (136119), India
4
Department of Electronics & Communication Engineering,University Institute of Engineering and Technology,Kurukshetra
University, Kurukshetra (136119), India
Email:1sanjeevbhardwaj1988@gmail.com,2joginderuiet@gmail.com,3swatidahiya@yahoo.co.in,4tripathiuiet@gmail.com

Abstract- Gel Documentation System is the primary requirement
of all labs where experiments related to molecular biology are
performed. The commercial Gel Documentation System
available in the market is not affordable by all labs in developing
countries like India. We have assembled an in-house high
quality, yet affordable gel documentation system using a
consumer grade digital camera and other related materials. The
results obtained are comparable to those obtained from
commercial Gel Documentation System. Moreover, these results
are expected to improve further after using high quality filters
and image-editing softwares. Thus the present system is a good
alternative for all those who do not have access to expensive and
sophisticated Gel Documentation System.
Keywords- Gel-Documentation System; Transilluminator; Gel
Imager; ethidium bromide; agarose gel electrophoresis
I. INTRODUCTION
Gel Documentation System is also called Gel Doc, Gel
Imaging System or Gel Imager. In molecular biology
laboratories, a gel documentation system is used for the
quantification and identification of nucleic acid and protein
samples which are run on polyacrylamide or agarose gels
typically stained with ethidium bromide, silver nitrate,
coomassie blue stain etc. [1]. It helps in recording, optimizing,
quantifying and storing the data, accurately as well as
precisely.
A gel documentation system includes following important
components:
1. A compact darkroom hood for image acquisition.
2. A digital camera for capturing images.
3. A UV transilluminator for observing DNA bands.
4. Software for computer-control capture and image editing.
It is designed to capture photographs of gels after
running nucleic acids in the gels. The nucleic acid bands that
appear on the gel are photographed. The camera is connected
to a computer monitor so that the image can be adjusted
before capturing. The photographs taken using gel
documentation systems are used for research purposes, data
storage and detailed analysis. It works on the principle that
when an intense UV light (254 nm/302 nm generally) falls on
an ethidium bromide stained gel, the ethidium bromide which
intercalates in the groove of DNA, gets excited which can
then be observed in visible range (at 590 nm) by a camera [2].
Since every lab has different set of requirements, there is a
demand of building own imaging systems. It allows
researchers to pick and choose among an assortment of
transilluminators, cameras, and imaging softwares [3].
II. MATERIALS AND METHODS
The materials used for construction of low cost gel
documentation system are as follow:
1. Cardboard box for pre-verification of design.
2. Orange filters for blocking background light.
3. Digital Camera or Web Cam for image capturing.
4. Card Reader for transferring images to computer.
5. UV Transilluminator.
6. Computer System for image editing and data storage.
7. An ethidium bromide stained agarose gel containing
DNA samples for verification.
The procedure for gel casting [4] is summarized as below:
1. A 1% agarose gel was prepared by dissolving and
boiling agarose powder into electrophoresis buffer
(1X).
2. The clear solution was then allowed to cool to 55 o C
and ethidium bromide is added to it (10µg/ml).
3. The pre-cooled solution was poured into casting tray
of electrophoretic assembly and a comb was inserted
into it for creating wells.
4. After solidification of the gel, the DNA samples
mixed with tracking dye were loaded into the wells
and it was electrophoresed for 2-3 hours at 100V.
Simultaneously a box was designed and constructed using
card-board and fitted with an orange filter inside a hole.
Webcam, mobile and digital camera were placed one by one
over the filter. DNA bands were observed in ethidium
bromide stained gel over UV transilluminator. At this step, the
cardboard box was placed over the UV transilluminator and
the gel images were photographed.
After finalizing the design and dimensional details, a metallic
housing was fabricated. This housing was fitted with an
orange filter and the camera is kept over it such that the lens
of the camera rests over the filter. It was then placed over the

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 National Conference on Converging Technologies beyond 2020, (CTB-2020), April 6, 7, 2011
International Journal of Applied Engineering Research, ISSN 0973-4562 Vol.6 No.5 (2011)

UV transilluminator to serve as a dark room hood. This

metallic housing along with UV transilluminator functions as
complete gel documentation system.

III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The assembly of pre-verification gel documentation system
and final metallic housed gel documentation system are shown
in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2, respectively.

Fig. 4 Gel image taken using mobile camera of 2 megapixel.

Fig. 3 and Fig. 4, are the images of same gel captured using
webcam and mobile camera respectively. Even weak bands
are in visible in both the images, however bands in Fig. 4, are
more intense and clear.

Fig. 1 Gel Documentation system assembled using card-board box and UV

transilluminator.

Fig. 5 Gel image taken using digital camera of 8megapixels.

Fig. 2 Gel Documentation system assembled using metallic hood and UV

transilluminator.
The images from our metallic hood assembled gel
documentation for trial were quite comparable to the ones
taken on commercial gel documentation systems. Here are the
sample images straight out of our experiment. Fig. 6 Gel image taken using digital camera of 8megapixels.

Fig. 6 shows the gel image captured using our metallic in-
house Gel Doc which depicts better resolved bands and noise
reduction.

Gel documentation technology has come a long way since the

days scientists used instant cameras mounted above a UV box.
There is now a virtual arsenal of imaging systems, most of
which operate with either a CCD (charge coupled device)
camera or flatbed scanner [5]. Both types have advantages as
well as drawbacks, each of which was carefully considered
prior to designing this system. Other things which posed
Fig. 3 Gel image taken using webcam
problems while designing this low cost gel documentation
system were selection of filter and camera. During verification

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 National Conference on Converging Technologies beyond 2020, (CTB-2020), April 6, 7, 2011
International Journal of Applied Engineering Research, ISSN 0973-4562 Vol.6 No.5 (2011)

of filters, we found that local orange filters were not able to

block UV rays completely and UV tubes were visible in the
background thus interfering with the results. Finally we got a
MARUMI YA2 filter (made in Japan) which allows only
orange light to pass through. Similarly, a wide variety of
cameras are available in the market differing in resolution and
cost e.g. CCD camera, webcam, Polaroid camera, digital
camera, etc. Finally we settled with Olympus (8 megapixels)
digital camera for our in-house Gel Documentation system
The image photographed using metallic housed gel
documentation system (as in Fig. 6) is interpretable as well as
reproducible. The bands are clearly visible in this image
which is comparable to those taken using commercial gel
documentation system. The weak DNA bands were visible in
our Gel Doc as well in the commercial one.

IV. CONCLUSION
Although the pictures taken by our in-house Gel Doc system
are comparable to a commercial gel documentation system,
but further improvement can still be done. These results are
expected to improve further when we will use high quality
filters and image-editing softwares like imageJ. The
commercial Gel Doc available in the market costs more than 5
lakhs including computer system which is not affordable to all
labs in India while our gel documentation is barely above Rs
50,000 excluding computer system. This is less than 10 times
cheaper than commercial Gel Doc available in the market thus
representing a tremendous savings over commercial gel
documentation systems [6].

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We would like to thank Kurukshetra University,
Kurukshetra for providing all the infrastructure and help to
carry out this project.

REFERENCES
[1]Goforth. S. Review on GelDoc. The Scientist. Vol. 15, pp. 28, 2001.
[2] Sambrook, J. and Russell D.W. Molecular Cloning; A laboratory manual,
Third edition. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, New York. pp:
5.14 2001.
[3]http://ww.virginia.edu/biology/faculty/hirshlab/hirsh_gel/gel/index.html
[4] Sambrook, J. and Russell D.W. Molecular Cloning; A laboratory manual,
Third edition. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, New York. pp:
5.45.14 2001
[5] http:// www.europeanbiotechnologists.com/blog?s=gel+doc
[6] openwetware.org/wiki/user:Norman_Wang.

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