FAS Digi Gel Imaging System

Image the finest details of DNA & RNA gels
The FAS Digi Gel Imaging system is the latest addition to our growing FastGene family for sensitive and safe nucleic acid detection and documentation. This imaging platform is built around the new FastGene Blue/Green LED Gel TransIlluminator which utilizes the superior technology of ultra-bright blue and green LEDs. The aquamarine-color illumination hits the sweet spot for exciting common fluorescence DNA dyes such as EtBr and Sybr Green. You can always expect at least equivalent results as compared to UV transilluminators, but without the risk of damaging DNA or harming your skin and eyes. That’s because the lower energy photons from these LEDs will not crosslink DNA (rendering it unable to be replicated) unlike short wave UV light. The system is designed to produce stronger signals and lower background by illuminating from opposite sides (dual LED matrices) as opposed to directly shining light from below like, most other gel illuminators. The FAS Digi was developed for use with either red dyes such as ethidium bromide (EtBr) or next generation non-carcinogenic dyes like our Midori Green or Sybr Green-based dyes. LEDs are safer and more efficient than traditional UV bulbs making the FAS Digi system very compact and extraordinarily durable. The powerful 16 megapixel camera (which can be controlled from a tablet or smartphone) is easy to use and provides publication ready images every time. The Fas Digi’s camera and housing are easily removed from the compact illuminator allowing this system to also function as gel imaging table so that you can excise bands. Bring your gel electrophoresis into the 21st century with this affordable and flexible gel documentation system.

FastGene FAS Digi Image of PCR-Products stained with Midori Green Advance and separated on a 1% TBE agarose gel

(original image – no doctoring of contrast and intensity)

Get your DNA the easy way
With the FastGene FAS Digi Imager and Midori Green Stain, it becomes extremely simple to cut your DNA fragment out of gels. You don’t need to wear protective eyewear, or worry about mutagenic dyes. Switch on the LEDs and excise your DNA fragment with our FastGene Agarose Gel Band Cutter. Fast, precise and totally safe, it’s the 21st century way of working with DNA. There is simply no reason to put yourself or your lab staff at risk during routine handling of DNA for subcloning, genetic analysis and many other applications.

Safer for you and better for your subcloning
By using safe DNA dyes and safe LED illuminators you can improve your subcloning transformation efficiencies by THREE-FOLD. In this example, a plasmid vector was double digested with suitable restriction enzymes to create two sticky-ended DNA fragments: the lacZ gene (3,536 bp) and the backbone of the vector (4,318 bp). Equal amounts of digested DNA were electrophoresed on 1% agarose gels. The gels were stained with either ethidium bromide or Midori Green Direct gel stain according to the corresponding manuals, and then viewed using either a UV transilluminator or the FastGene Blue/Green LED Illuminator, respectively. The two DNA fragments were excised from the gels and purified using a silica membrane based purification kit. The lacZ gene and the vector backbone were religated using T4 DNA ligase transformed into DH5a cells and plated onto selection plates. The total number of blue and white colonies was counted to evaluate cloning efficiency. Each experiment was conducted in triplicate, and the average cloning efficiency was determined. Midori Green Direct resulted in dramatic increase of positive transformants.

Midori Green Can Boost Your Cloning Results!

Ethidium bromide is typically used in conjunction with a strong UV light source to excise DNA bands for purification prior to the ligation reaction. Short wave-length light is well known to cause thymidine dimers and damage the DNA. The extent of this damage is not always appreciated. High energy light wreaks havoc on a DNA fragment in mere seconds. As can be seen below, after only a 15 sec exposure of DNA in a standard agarose gel, cloning efficiency starts to drop. And after a 30 sec exposure your cloning experiment is all but dead! In contrast, the cloning efficiency of protocols that use Blue LEDs seem completely immune to any deleterious effects. If your lab isn’t able to break itself of its ethidium bromide habit, using a Blue/Green LED illuminator (and imaging systems) have no significant impact on cloning efficiency or DNA integrity.

UV Transilluminators Kill Cloning Experiments

WiFi Tethering
Control the camera of the FAS-Digi using your tablet or smartphone. The software (Panasonic Image App) is freely available on the AppStore and on the PlayStore. Once you connected the camera to the smartphone you can remotely shoot an image, change the settings and/or directly store the images taken. The software is very intuitive.

Quantitate freely
What’s better than buying the most affordable gel documentation system on the market? Downloading the compatible software used to quantify bands for protein, DNA and RNA gel bands for absolutely FREE. The GelAnalyzer software covers all the main aspects of evaluation from automatic lane detection to precise molecular weight calculations.