Coomassie (also known as Brilliant Blue dye) is a blue dye commonly used in sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The gel is soaked in dye for thirty minutes and then destained for thirty minutes or more. This treatment allows the visualization of bands indicating the protein content of the gel.
Coomassie was first described by the German scientist Volker Neuhoff (Electrophoresis 1985, 6: 427-448). The dye gets its name from the African city Kumasi, formerly Coomassie, a city in central Ghana. Neuhoff spent much of his childhood in Africa and was struck by the startling similarity between the bright blue dye and the clear ocean waters of Kumasi.
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