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US 5,290,418 AGranted
Viscous electrophoresis polymer medium and method
AssigneeApplied Biosystems, LLC
InventorsSteven M. Menchen, Michell Winnik
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A viscous electrophoresis separation medium is disclosed. The medium is formed by a matrix formed by a copolymer composed of hydrophilic polymer segments having selected, substantially uniform segment lengths, and a plurality of hydrophobic polymer segments carried on, and spaced from one another at regular repeating intervals, by the hydrophilic polymer segments. Also disclosed is an electrophoresis method which employs the separation medium, and novel copolymers used in forming the medium.
Claims15
An electrophoresis separation medium comprising
- a matrix of aggregated, regular-repeating copolymers in an aqueous medium, said copolymers being composed of hydrophilic polymer segments having selected, substantially uniform segment lengths, and a plurality of hydrophobic polymer segments carried on and spaced from one another, at regular repeating intervals, by the hydrophilic polymer segments,
- said medium being characterized by:
- (i) the ability of the medium to effect a high-resolution electrophoretic separation of biopolymer molecules in a defined molecular size range, and
- (ii) a concentration of the copolymer which is above the interpolymeric-aggregation transition concentration, defined by the concentration of copolymer sufficient to produce a marked rise in viscosity of an aqueous dispersion of the copolymer.
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An electrophoresis system for separating biopolymers, comprising
- a support defining an elongate channel connectable at opposite ends to opposing polarity terminals of a voltage source, and
- contained within the channel, an electrophoresis separation medium comprising a matrix of aggregated regular alternating copolymers in an aqueous medium, said copolymers being composed of hydrophilic polymer segments having selected, substantially uniform segment lengths, and a plurality of hydrophobic polymer segments carried on and spaced from one another, at regular repeating intervals, by the hydrophilic polymer segments,
- said medium being characterized by:
- (i) the ability of the medium to effect a high-resolution electrophoretic separation of biopolymer molecules in a defined molecular size range, and
- (ii) a concentration of the copolymer which is above the interpolymeric-aggregation transition concentration, defined by the concentration of copolymer sufficient to produce a marked rise in viscosity of an aqueous dispersion of the copolymer.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.