The western blot, also commonly known as immunoblot, has since become an essential and ubiquitous technique in biology and medical labs around the world. The research groups of George Stark at Stanford University and Harry Towbin at Friedrich Miescher Institut in Switzerland published similar immunoblotting techniques at roughly the same time. Despite this, the paper was widely circulated and eventually published in 1981. Interestingly, the manuscript detailing this technique was initially rejected, with reviewers criticizing the method’s name as “flippant and frivolous whimsy”. He subsequently termed this method the “western blot”, in a nod to its predecessors. Neal Burnette, a postdoc at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, developed a method for visualizing proteins separated by SDS-PAGE using monoclonal antibodies. This method was quickly followed two years later by the invention of the “northern blot”, which could detect specific RNA molecules using radio-labeled DNA probes.
In 1975, Edwin Southern invented the eponymously-named “southern blot”, a technique in which DNA fragments are separated through electrophoresis based on their size and then transferred to a nitrocellulose membrane for detection. In fact, essential western blot methodology, including sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and monoclonal antibodies with antigen specificity, were only established in 19, respectively. It may be surprising to learn that the history of the western blot only stretches back to the late 1970s.
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