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John;

We have attended several workshops where GFP "labeled" live cells were used and the favorite sealant has been VALAP which is a mixture of Vaseline, Lanolin, and Paraffin in a 1:1:1 ratio.

This mixture is heated (gently) on a hotplate and applied around the coverslip with a small pointed brush.

There are no solvents involved, the mixture hardens immediately, and there is no risk of coating an objective lens with wet fingernail polish. 

Regards,

Tom

 Tom Donnelly          Applied Precision, LLC
 Biotechnology Group   1040 12th Ave. N.W.
 (425)313-4549         Issaquah, WA 98027-8929
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-----Original Message-----
From: John Runions [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Sunday, March 10, 2002 3:16 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: GFP and Nail Varnish


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Dear Michael,

It would be fabulous if you have a nail polish that doesn't kill GFP.  They
all contain solvents, I would guess, and all of the xylene/toluene-like
solvents that I have tried quench the fluorescence of the fluorescent
proteins immediately.  What type of nail polish do you use for ringing
slides?  Even better, get the chemists on it and find out what the solvent
is :-/

This makes me think of the time that one of the male postdocs in our lab
spent days going around to the shops looking for one particular shade of
nail polish because it contained titanium flakes that were very conductive.
He would use it to ground samples to SEM stubs.

Cheers, John

On 9/3/02 1:22 pm, mancini ([log in to unmask]) wrote:
>
> Maybe it is nail polish specific....we never have a problem sealing
> coverslips. Slides last quite a while (kept at 4C).  Who's going to
> volunteer to test all 582 brands of nail polish?  ;-)
>
> Michael A. Mancini, Ph.D.
> Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology
> Baylor College of Medicine
> Houston, TX  77030
>
>
>

-------
C. John Runions, Ph. D.
Department of Plant Sciences
University of Cambridge
Downing St.
Cambridge UK
CB2 3EA

email: [log in to unmask]
phone: (01223) 766 545
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