One-Step Blue® Protein Gel Stain

One-Step Blue® Protein Gel Stain is a ready-to-use visible blue protein gel staining solution. With no fixation or wash steps required, One-Step Blue® is a great choice for convenience and safety. One-Step Blue® can detect as little as approximately 10-20 ng of protein per band.

• One-step staining procedure, no fixation required
• Non-toxic formulation is safe for easy disposal
• Sensitive protein detection down to 10-20 ng
• Visualize blue bands, or image with a near-infrared fluorescence imager
• 1 L size
• Store at 4°C

See the simple one-step staining procedure in this quick video

Clear visible protein staining in just 1 hour, no destaining required

One-Step Blue® produces fast (5-60 min) protein staining in a single step without fixation or washing. Destaining is optional. One-Step Blue® has comparable sensitivity as the widely used Coomassie Blue, with a lower limit of detection around 10-20 ng depending on the detection method used. Note that staining intensity varies between proteins. The staining is fully compatible with mass spectrometry and Edman-based sequencing. Proteins can be detected by visible blue staining, or by near-infrared fluorescence.

Results are clear. One-Step Blue® is a superior alternative to Coomassie and other colorimetric protein gel stains.

In a comparison experiment with Coomassie Brilliant Blue R-250 and Simply Blue™ SafeStain, One-Step Blue® demonstrated much clearer staining after 1 hour of destaining in water compared to other stains.

Unstained protein ladder was loaded on a 4-12% Bis-Tris gel and stained for 1 hour with Coomassie Brilliant Blue R-250 (CBB), Simply Blue™ SafeStain (SB), and One-Step Blue® (OSB) following SDS-PAGE. Gels stained with Simply Blue™ SafeStain, and One-Step Blue® were destained in water for 1 hour. The gel stained with CBB was destained in 5% MeOH, and 7.5% acetic acid for 1 hour.

One-Step Blue® is non-toxic

One-Step Blue® offers safer handling and disposal compared to Coomassie staining because it is entirely aqueous-based, without hazardous methanol or acetic acid.  One-Step stains are certified under CCR Title 22 as non-toxic to the environment for drain disposal after a simple pH neutralization step.

One-Step Blue® is an alternative to tedious Coomassie staining, and can be imaged visually (left) or using a near-infrared fluorescence imager (right).

Please visit our Protein Gel Stains technology page to learn about our other safe and sensitive protein gel stains such as One-Step Lumitein™ and One-Step Lumitein UV which are rapid, easy-to-use, and non-toxic alternative to SYPRO® Ruby and Oriole™ Protein Gel Stains.