This electrophoresis comb is made from flimsy white plastic and has 20 tines. Scientists at Genentech in the late 1970s made this comb themselves by cutting it out of a sheet of plastic.
Electrophoresis combs are used to create the wells in gels for electrophoresis, a technique that uses the electrical charges of molecules to separate them by their length. It is often used to analyze DNA fragments. When a gel is poured, a comb is inserted. After the gel solidifies, the comb is removed, leaving wells for samples.
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