[epistatic]

There is some very useful information here. Has anyone used Bio-rad's Gel Doc EZ system in place of a bioanalyzer?

Do you mean the Experion™ Automated Electrophoresis Station? That would be Bio-Rad's BioA. We tried it out due to the lower price point but decided to return it and go with the BioA. They run the same Caliper chips but have a lower number of samples per well. Our unit had the chip vortexer's speed capped off and would throw the sample out of the well. They tried to tell us we didn't know how to pipet and then it was because our building "moved too much for the laser". We had to put dye into the chips and show how it was really failing.

The Gel Doc EZ system is good for taking pics of gels and doing other work but you can't beat the bioanalyzer's ability to handle different sample types like the High Sensitivity/DNA1000 chips for DNA and nano/pico for RNA. We use it multiple times a day for sample QC -> QC through library preps.

[ngsnewbie]

Ben, did you ever set up the new lab? If yes, what did you purchase? Thanks!