Agarose gels are chemically purified forms of agar, a polysaccharide extracted from seaweed. The gel pores allow for separation of proteins based on their individual charge and mass. Agarose gel will naturally clear after drying the separated proteins.

Common clinical uses of agarose gel electrophoresis (AGE) are separations of plasma proteins, hemoglobin variants, lipoproteins, and isoenzymes. The gels come prepackaged with a plastic template to lay over gel for sample application or slots etched in the gel for these samples.