what does a bradford protein assay do
The Bradford assay is very fast and uses about the same amount of protein as the Lowry assay. It is fairly accurate and samples that are out of range can be retested within minutes. The Bradford is recommended for general use, especially for determining protein content of cell fractions and assesing protein concentrations for gel electrophoresis. Assay materials including color reagent, protein standard, and instruction booklet are available from Bio-Rad Corporation. The method described below is for a 100 Âµl sample volume using 5 ml color reagent. It is sensitive to about 5 to 200 micrograms protein, depending on the dye quality. In assays using 5 ml color reagent prepared in lab, the sensitive range is closer to 5 to 100 Âµg protein. Scale down the volume for the microassay procedure, which uses 1 ml cuvettes. Protocols, including use of microtiter plates are described in the flyer that comes with the Bio-Rad kit.