Electroblotting

Electroblotting is like baking a cake, but with molecules instead of ingredients!

First, we need a cake (or blot) to bake. In electroblotting, we start with a special gel that has lots of tiny holes in it. We put our molecules (usually proteins or DNA) into the gel and let them get stuck in the holes.

Now it's time to bake our cake! But instead of an oven, we use electricity. We place the gel on top of a special piece of paper, and then put another piece of paper on top of the gel. We connect the bottom piece of paper to a negative charge and the top piece to a positive charge.

When we turn on the electricity, it makes the molecules in the gel start to move. Just like how heat makes a cake rise, the electricity makes the molecules move upwards towards the top piece of paper.

After some time, all of the molecules have moved out of the gel and onto the top piece of paper. We carefully remove the paper and our molecules are now transferred onto it!

Now we just need to decorate our cake (or blot) by staining it with special dyes that help us see our molecules. And just like how you can see the colorful frosting on a cake, we can now see our molecules on the paper!