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Equipment designed to transfer (blot) nucleic acid (DNA or RNA) samples typically from an agarose gel onto a membrane (e.g., nylon, nitrocellulose, polyvinylidene difluoride-PVDF ) or less frequently to a filter or treated paper after a gel electrophoresis procedure, a procedure that separates the molecules according to the charge and size. The transfer is performed using an electric gradient process that may be (1) a wet process (also known as tank process) or (2) a semi-dry process. In the wet process the gels are placed in a transfer sandwich (consisting of a filter paper-gel-membrane-filter paper), cushioned by pads and pressed together by a support grid. The supported gel sandwich is placed vertically in a tank between stainless steel/platinum wire electrodes and filled with transfer buffer. In the semi-dry process the transfer sandwich is placed horizontally between two plate electrodes in a semi-dry transfer apparatus. IVD nucleic acid electric gradient transfer blotters are intended to provide in an immobilized matrix an identical copy of the electrophoretic pattern present in the gel allowing the performance of a wide range of analytical procedures. The blotters are used in tests usually known as southern or northern blots, for DNA and RNA respectively.
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