Western blotting

Okay kiddo, so you know how we have different parts in our body called proteins? Scientists sometimes want to see these proteins and study them to understand their function. That's where western blotting come in!

Western blotting is like taking a family photo where you want to see every member clearly. First, we put the proteins we want to study into a gel bed. This is like putting your family members in a row so they can be captured in one photo.

Next, we apply electricity to the gel, which helps separate the proteins, almost like getting each family member to line up in order of height.

Then, we move the proteins from the gel onto a special paper called a membrane. It's like taking a photo of one family member at a time, so we can see each one clearly.

After that, we add a special liquid called an antibody. This is like adding a magnifying glass to the picture to help us see the specific family member we want to focus on.

Finally, we add another chemical that helps us see the protein, kind of like turning on a light to see the picture clearly. All the proteins that we want to study will light up, showing us where they are and how much there is.

And that's it, we now have a picture of the proteins we want to study! We now understand their size and amount, which helps scientists study them to know more about what they do in our body.