Annotate Visible Protein Ladders on Chemiluminescent Westerns with the WesternSure® Pen

Thursday, 20 February, 2014


  • annotate protein ladders
  • western blot marker pen
  • westernsure pen

    • If you doing chemiluminescent Western blots, and are imaging either with film or with a digital imager, the WesternSure® Pen can be a very useful addition to your experimental process. This member of the LI-COR WesternSure chemiluminescent reagent line can be used to annotate visible protein ladders prior to chemiluminescent Western blot detection.

    The pen is optimized for detection using the C-DiGit® Blot Scanner or the Odyssey® Fc Imaging System, and is suitable for use with film or other imaging systems. 

    The WesternSure Pen is a unique marker that delivers an ink which emits light when incubated with commonly-used chemiluminescent substrates, including WesternSure PREMIUM Chemiluminescent Substrate. The ink is faintly visible for easy identification of marked membranes.

    Here are a few tips to get the best performance from your WesternSure Pen:

    • Lightly touching the pen to the membrane should be enough to transfer ink to the membrane.
    • Do not push down on the nib so hard that it creates an uneven surface on the membrane.
    • Membranes may be annotated when damp after transfer, or when dry.
    • Annotated membranes may be stored dry at ambient temperature or 4 ºC for up to 1 week before starting the Western blot detection process.
    • If ink is not flowing smoothly onto a damp membrane, trace over the band until it is annotated to the desired effect.
    Figure 1. Chemiluminescent detection of visible protein standards. The WesternSure Pen (P/N 926‑91000) was used to mark the blue protein standards (panel A) for chemiluminescent Western blot detection. The blot was exposed to WesternSure PREMIUM chemiluminescent substrate and imaged on Odyssey Fc Imaging System (panel B).

    If you would like some tips on how to troubleshoot chemiluminescent Western blots, read Good Westerns Gone Bad - Maximizing Sensitivity on Chemiluminescent Western Blots.

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