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Article: Immunoelectrophoresis
- Article from:
- World of Microbiology and Immunology
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Immunoelectrophoresis
Immunoelectrophoresis is a technique that separates proteins on the basis of both their net charge (and so their movement in an electric field) and on the response of the
immune system
to the proteins. The technique is widely used in both clinical and research laboratories as a diagnostic tool to probe the protein composition of serum.
Petr Nikolaevich Grabar, a French immunologist, devised the technique in the 1950s. In essence, immunoelectrophoresis separates the various proteins in a sample in an electric field and then probes the separated proteins using the desired
antiserum
.
The most widely used version of the technique employs an apparatus, which consists ...