Fremont, CA — Biotium, inventor of the popular GelRed® and GelGreen® DNA gel stains, announces the release of EMBER500™ RNA Prestain Loading Dye. This novel prestain loading dye is much more sensitive than conventional prestaining with ethidium bromide (EtBr). In addition, it is compatible with blue LED gel imagers, unlike EtBr.

Staining for RNA is commonly done with EtBr on a denaturing gel after electrophoresis. However, denaturing gels can be complicated to prepare and involve handling hazardous reagents. RNA prestaining with EtBr can be performed with non-denaturing agarose gels, but requires large amounts of the dye and sensitivity is still severely limited. 

EMBER500™ was developed by Biotium scientists to offer much brighter signal and higher sensitivity than EtBr for RNA gel staining. For maximum convenience, the prestain also includes formamide as well as electrophoresis tracking dyes, allowing sample denaturing, loading, tracking, and staining in a single step. In addition, EMBER500™ stains both RNA and DNA, allowing the detection of contaminating genomic DNA in purified RNA samples. Detection of EMBER500™ is flexible, with compatibility for UV transilluminators and blue LED gel imagers, which eliminate UV exposure hazards.

The prestain will be supplied at a 2X concentration, for convenient loading of sample and dye in equal volumes. EMBER500™ RNA Prestain Loading Dye will be available in 4 x 1 mL and 1 x 250 uL sizes priced at $350 and $60 respectively. However, free samples will be available for a limited time. Please visit the product page to learn more about EMBER500™ and how to receive a free sample.

Features and benefits of EMBER500™ RNA Prestain Loading Dye

• Sensitive: Brighter and much more sensitive than EtBr.
• Convenient: Denature, load, track, and stain RNA samples in a single step on a regular agarose gel.
• Versatile: Stains both DNA and RNA for evaluating total RNA integrity and DNA contamination.
• Flexible Detection: Detect with UV transilluminators or blue LED gel imagers.

The release of EMBER500™ RNA Prestain Loading Dye adds to Biotium’s industry-leading catalog of novel nucleic acid gel stains for life science research.