atoms carry a positive charge. The two sulfonic acid groups have extremely low pKa and will normally be negatively charged, thus at a pH of around zero the dye will be a cation with an overall charge of +1. The green colour corresponds to a form of the dye with no net overall charge. In neutral media (pH 7), only the nitrogen atom of the diphenylamine moiety carries a positive charge and the blue dye molecule is an anion with an overall charge of −1. The pKa values for the losses of the two protons are 1.15 and 1.82, respectively. The final proton is lost under alkaline conditions and the dye becomes pink (pKa 12.4). The dye interacts electrostatically but noncovalently with the amino and carboxyl groups of proteins. The dye molecules bind to proteins, including those in wool (keratin), to form a protein–dye complex. The formation of the complex stabilises the negatively charged anionic form of the dye, producing the blue colour, even under acid conditions when most of the molecules in solution are in the cationic form. This is the basis of the Bradford assay, which quantifies protein by Coomassie brilliant blue dye binding. The binding of the dye to a protein causes a shift in the absorbance maximum of the dye from 465 to 595 nm. The increase of absorption at 595 nm is monitored to determine protein concentration. The dye also forms a complex with the anionic detergent sodium dodecylsulfate (SDS). The formation of this complex stabilizes the neutral, green form of the dye. This effect can interfere with the estimation of protein concentration using the Bradford assay. It is also likely that the anionic detergent competes with the dye for binding to the protein. Applications in biochemistry Coomassie brilliant blue R-250 was first used to visualise proteins in 1963 by Fazekas de St. Groth and colleagues. Protein samples were separated electrophoretically on a cellulose acetate sheet. The sheet was then soaked in sulfosalicylic acid to fix the protein bands and transferred to a solution of the dye. Two years later in 1965 Meyer and Lambert used Coomassie brilliant blue R-250 to stain protein samples after electrophoretic separation in a polyacrylamide gel. They soaked the gel in a dye solution containing methanol, acetic acid and water. As the dye stained the polyacrylamide gel as well as the protein, in order to visualise the protein bands they