Along with his preliminary results, Itano suggested in a 1948
report that there were eight other options for immediate
research, one of which eventually proved successful:
"electrophoretic studies on normal and sickle cell hemoglobin."
In his synopsis about electrophoresis, Itano briefly mentioned
the preliminary status of electrophoretic studies on hemoglobin
and its possible utility for his research. Itano stated later
that he initially tried electrophoresis because the apparatus
was available and required small amounts of blood. At the time,
Caltech had a problem getting adequate samples of blood from
people with sickle cell anemia. Pauling finally obtained a
regular supply in May 1949 from Dr. George Burch of Tulane
University. Electrophoresis uses electric currents to examine
substances that have varying surface charges, and therefore is
especially helpful in analyzing proteins. Protein samples in a
buffer solution are run through the electrophoresis apparatus,
which creates a moving boundary. Moving bou