Overview
Protein electrophoresis is a commonly used technique to separate proteins, and is often followed by in-gel staining and/or western analysis to detect the proteins of interest. With a wide variety of applications in proteomics, ranging from protein characterization to protein quantification and applications in other areas such as clinical diagnostics and verification of in vivo and in vitro protein expression, protein electrophoresis and western analysis products are widely used by scientists in academia and industry. Protein electrophoresis and western analysis products represent a key growth area in the life sciences industry as life science suppliers continue improving products and services in this market.

In order to dive more deeply into the characteristics and dynamics of the market for protein electrophoresis and western analysis, Percepta has introduced the Protein Electrophoresis and Western Analysis Dashboard™, designed to take a snapshot of the current market landscape with the future goal of repeating and publishing the study to give Dashboard readers the ongoing story of how the market is adopting to new products, new competitors and sales and marketing strategies.

The Protein Electrophoresis and Western Analysis Dashboard™ was developed from responses to a 36-question survey completed by 462 scientists predominantly located in North America and Europe. This Dashboard reveals key market indicators for the protein electrophoresis and western analysis market as a whole as well as for the following sub-segments:

• Protein capillary electrophoresis systems
• Protein electrophoresis gels or gel casting reagents
• Protein standards
• Protein stains
• Western blotting membranes
• Western detection reagents

Certain market information (share of mentions) is also included on the following electrophoresis apparatus segments:

• Protein electrophoresis apparatus
• Western transfer device
• Electrophoresis power supplies

This report is focused on the use of protein electrophoresis and western analysis products in life science research market.

Survey Methodology
In November of 2011, Percepta fielded the Protein Electrophoresis and Western Analysis Survey to a subset of the company’s panel of life scientists. Individuals were invited by e-mail blast to click through to a webpage at perceptabioanalytix.com where the survey was hosted.  Invitations were delivered on November 14, 2011 and results collected through November 30, 2011.  A total of 462 qualified scientists completed the survey. Results based on the aggregate of collected responses are revealed in this Protein Electrophoresis and Western Analysis Dashboard.

Respondent Demographics
Respondents from the academic, government and commercial market segments are well represented, with 25.1% of respondents employed in an industry setting and 74.9% of respondents employed in academic setting. 66.8% of respondents are from North America, while 31.8% reside in Europe and 1.4% resides in the rest of the world.

Junior (Lab Tech, Grad Students, Post-Doctoral Fellow), mid-level (Department Manager, Project Manager, Scientist, Core Manager, Professor, Instructor, Lab Manager) and senior (PI, Group Leader, Lab Director, Senior Scientist, CEO) scientists are well represented in the data set, with the most cited job titles being Post-Doctoral Fellow/Research Fellow (17.5% of respondents) and Principal Investigator (14.9%).

A wide variety of scientific areas of specialization is also evident, led by molecular biology (named by 21.4% of respondents as their primary or secondary area of expertise) and biochemistry (named by 16.2% of respondents). Cell biology (12.8%) is the only other application named by more than 10.0% of respondents.

Small (1-5 scientists), medium (6-20 scientists) and large (>20 scientists) laboratories are well represented: 35.0% of respondents work in labs where 1 to 5 people perform experiments; 50.9% in labs with 6 to 20 experimenters, and the remaining 14.1% in labs with greater than 20 bench scientists.