After a protein band is excised, carefully transfer it to a to a clean 500 ul Eppendorf tube. Cap the tube, label it; and wrap it with parafilm to prevent the gel piece from drying. Adding 5-10 ul 1 % acetic acid in water will help to prevent the drying of gel and the growing of fungi or bacteria during shipment. Don’t put this or any other solution in a larger volume. If you need to cut several bands out, do it one by one to avoid mislabeling of these gel bands. Such a mistake will be very difficult to track down.

All samples should be shipped via an express service (FedEx, Airborne, etc) to minimize protein degradation. A gel sample can be shipped inside a normal envelope (we haven’t detected protein degradation of a gel sample after 2-3 days at room temperature), or if a customer prefers, the samples can be shipped inside a dry ice container. Please send us your samples with 1) a copy of your sample submission form and 2) a copy of the gel image photograph.