Agarose gels are chemically purified forms of agar (a polysaccharide extracted from seaweed). The gel pores allow for the separation of proteins based on their individual charge and mass. Agarose gel will naturally clear after drying the separated proteins.
Common clinical uses of agarose gel electrophoresis (AGE) are the separation of plasma proteins, hemoglobin variants, lipoproteins, and isoenzymes. The gels come prepackaged with a plastic template to lay over the gel for sample application or slots etched into the gel for the introduction of these samples.