Gel electrophoresis is a method for separation and analysis of macromolecules (
DNA,
RNA and
proteins) and their fragments, based on their size and charge. It is used in clinical chemistry to separate proteins by charge and/or size (IEF agarose, essentially size independent) and in
biochemistry and
molecular biology to separate a mixed population of
DNA and
RNA fragments by length, to estimate the size of
DNA and
RNA fragments or to separate
proteins by charge.