electrophoresis

Term: electrophoresis

Literally meaning: “the act of bearing electrons”

Origin: Anc Greek

ήλεκτρον/electron(=amber) > ηλέκτωρ/helector(=shining light) > ήλιος/sun+ άγω/ago(=to carry)

-φόρεσις/-phoresis > φορέω/phoreo (=the act of bearing)

Coined/History

The first description of an electrophoric equipment was in 1937 in the paper “A new Apparatus for Electrophoretic Analysis of Colloidal Mixtures” written by Arne Tiselius (1902 – 29 October 1971). The equipment was finally developed  in 1955  by British-born American geneticist and Nobel Laureate Oliver Smithies (1925- ) trying to separate insulin  using moist starch grains which do not absorb proteins instead of moist filter paper of Kunkel and Slater in 1952.  In his Nobel lecture in 2007 noted “ when I was a boy I sometimes helped my mother with the laundry, and remembered that the boiled starch she used for my father’s shirts set into a jelly when it was cold.”

   Definition

Electrophoresis is the migration (or the equipment used for this)  of electrally charged particles (such as proteins or nucleic acids)  through a medium (gel or paper) under influence of an electric field.