Electrophoresis

Electrophoresis is the movement of electrically charged particles through a fluid or gel under an applied electric field. Differences in charge, size, and shape can make particles move at different rates, enabling their separation.

Electrophoretic mobility: A measure of a charged particle’s drift velocity per unit electric field. It quantifies how quickly a molecule migrates under electrophoresis.
DNA profiling: The analysis of genetic variation to distinguish individuals or biological samples. Gel separation can resolve DNA fragments used in some profiling methods.
Electric field: A physical field that exerts force on electric charges. It supplies the force that drives charged particles through the medium.
Chromatography: A family of methods that separates mixture components through differential partitioning between mobile and stationary phases. Chromatography separates by interactions with phases rather than primarily by electric-field-driven migration.
Ferdinand Frederic Reuss: A Russian physicist who reported electrokinetic effects in clay suspensions in 1809. His observations included the electric-field-driven movement of dispersed particles.
Zeta potential: The electric potential at the slipping plane between a particle and the surrounding fluid. It helps explain particle motion in fluid-based electrophoresis.
Southern blot: A method for detecting specific DNA sequences after fragment separation and transfer to a membrane. Electrophoresis separates DNA fragments before sequence-specific detection.
Electric charge: A fundamental property of matter that determines its electromagnetic interactions. A particle’s charge determines the direction and strength of its electrophoretic force.
Centrifugation: A method that separates particles by applying centrifugal force through rotation. It separates by sedimentation behavior rather than electrophoretic mobility.
Arne Tiselius: A Swedish chemist who developed moving-boundary electrophoresis and shared the 1948 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. His apparatus made electrophoretic separation a quantitative analytical method.

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