The Odyssey will allow us to do two antibody Westerns (and detect on two separate channels), thus loading controls, for example, can be run at the same time. As soon as the scan is acquired, one can do relative quantitation of the signal. If you include a standard on the gel, you can obviously quantitate immediately. The dyes linked to the antibodies are stable for at least a year, meaning you can rescan a blot multiple times (everyday if you'd like). No more adding chemilum reagent and running to the dark room. The best features of this device are the huge linear range, and the increase in sensitivity in comparison to the use of chemilum and film. One can also do immunohistochemistry with this device. A cool add on, is that anything blue fluoresces around 700 nm, which is one of the wavelengths picked up on this device. This means, that the markers used in the Western (if blue) show up on the scan! No more lining up the autorad with the membrane. You can even load (should only load in fact) 1/4 of the usual amount of marker.

In addition to the immunoblotting techniques, one can tag RNAs or DNAs for performing any nucleic acid assay, such as Northerns or Southerns, RPAs. One of the applications is the ability to do EMSAs with two different DNAs, labeled with dyes fluorescing at different wavelengths. One can then perform competition assays, and directly analyze the movement of a protein complex from one DNA to the next. There are Kits for adding the dye after the DNA or RNA probe has been acquired, or you can incorporate a biotinylated nucleotide and incubate with a streptavidin linked dye.

In essence, the Li-Cor Odyssey not only provides functionality that is a significant advance over that which we are currently capable, but also revolutionizes our ability to perform a number of routine molecular biological techniques, saving time and money, and increasing quantitative capabilities.

The detailed descriptions from each of Odyssey’s application can be found at the website: http://www.licor.com/bio/.