New Chemiluminescent Substrate Increases Sensitivity of Western Blot Assays

An extremely sensitive substrate kit for use in procedures to detect proteins by the Western blotting method has now been released to the market.

The PerkinElmer (Waltham, MA, USA) Western Lightning Ultra chemiluminescent substrate kit is a very sensitive system for detection of horseradish peroxidase (HRP) on membranes, with maximum sensitivity in the low femtogram (10^-15 g) range. It incorporates a novel enhancer that intensifies a signal generated by peroxidase-catalyzed oxidation of luminol. The substrate produces a signal at 425 nm for at least eight hours, making it ideal for use with a wide variety of CCD (charge-coupled device) imagers as well as Kodak BioMax Light or X-OMAT Blue film. Membranes may be stripped and re-probed for detection of multiple targets.

PerkinElmer maintains that the Western Lighting Ultra reagent produces outstanding sensitivity, a wide dynamic range, and stable signal for assured results in all areas of life sciences research. Additionally, the kit helps reduce the use of primary antibodies by tenfold, providing more information from smaller samples, for faster and more economical research outcomes.

"Life sciences researchers increasingly recognize a growing need for producing data through highly sensitive methods of detecting proteins of interest, under a variety of challenging experimental conditions,” said Dr. Martina Bielefeld-Sévigny, vice president for bio-discovery at PerkinElmer. "We have addressed these needs with the new Western Lighting Ultra detection kit. Researchers can now take advantage of a more stable signal and dynamic range that provides more accurate results. Ultimately, this capability will benefit investigations of potential new drugs, providing deeper insights into their effectiveness against critical diseases.”

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