Abstract: The present invention relates to an electrophoresis media comprising a gel and a compound capable of restricting the diffusion of water within the gel. Diffusion restricting compounds useful in the present invention include but are not limited to polyols, polymeric alcohols, polysaccharides, polyoxyethylene ethers, polyamines, polypeptides, gums, zwiterionic detergents and mixtures thereof. The present method relates to any electrophoresis media and includes but is not limited to polyacrylamide, agarose, starch, cellulose acetate and sepharose. A further embodiment of the present invention relates to a stacking gel wherein a diffusion restricting compound is used to prevent diffusion of water between the stack gel and resolving gel. The addition of a diffusion restricting compound to the stacking gel has the particular advantage of causing the stacking gel to become opaque, thereby facilitating the addition of samples to the gel.

Abstract: The subject invention provides novel methods and apparatus for synthesizing carbohydrates of a desired structure. The subject synthesis methods include using carbohydrage-modifying enzymes to perform individual synthesis reaction steps and electrophoresis to purify the reaction products for possible further use as substrates in additional synthesis reactions. The subject invention also provides novel methods and apparatus for detecting carbohydrates of interest. The methods and apparatus for synthesizing or detecting carbohydrates involve the use of carbohydrate-modifying enzymes immobilized in a reaction matrix gel and fluorophore labelled substrates that may be removed from the reaction matrix gel by electrophoresis and subsequently analyzed or transferred to another reaction gel matrix.The subject invention also provides methods for detecting and quantitating specific carbohydrate-modifying enzymes that might be present in a sample for analysis.