Real lab failures, root causes, and fixes — curated and bilingually annotated by our team.
Bands look thick and bloated, edges spill out, strong-signal differences are masked; not suitable for densitometry quantification because the linear range is lost.
White (hollow) bands appear against a black background, or strong positive positions appear white instead of black — signal is so saturated that it appears inverted.
Certain regions of the membrane show no signal at all, forming round or irregular blank zones; often due to transfer failure in those areas while surrounding bands look normal.
Within a single band the intensity is uneven (light/dark patches); bands across different lanes have inconsistent shapes, with a splotchy appearance.
Bands have blurred edges, show vertical smearing or the entire lane is hazy; background is fogged, making band intensity comparisons unreliable.
Membrane is completely blank — neither target protein nor housekeeping control shows any signal after ECL exposure.
Bands appear at molecular weights that do not match the expected target; multiple bands present where only one is expected.
Bands are visible but barely detectable; long exposure times are needed, and the internal control also appears weak.
Bands curve upward at the edges of the gel, appearing like a smile — the middle of the lane runs faster than the sides.
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